The Darkest Day
by Illeana Starbright
Summary: Danny Phantom may have saved the world from the disasteroid but his troubles are far from over. Deep within the Earth, something dark is stirring, and it will not be satisfied until it has destroyed everything that once stood in its path. Post Phantom Planet. Sequel to The Ultimate Enemy.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Before you begin this story, please be aware that this is the sequel to The Ultimate Enemy, which is an AU version of the episode of the same name. I own nothing of Danny Phantom you recognize, just Hanna.

* * *

_"People are crazy," an eight year old announced as she marched into Clockwork's lair. Her purple backpack bounced between her shoulder blades and she was clutching a clear plastic Tupperware container in one hand that was filled with what appeared to be a black mass speckled with little flecks of gold glitter. "Where do you want this?" the girl asked the room in general, shaking the container pointedly. The thing inside sloshed about a bit before releasing an angry growl that the girl ignored in favor of adjusting the violet fabric of the headband holding her straight blonde hair away from her face. She waited in the certain of the room for an answer but when she received none, she scowled and moved further inside._

_"I mean, who calls a ghost from another dimension when the book flat out says it's bad?" the girl ranted as her footsteps echoed off the high ceiling above. The thing in the Tupperware container growled again and she pouted at it, saying "Oh shut up you."_

_-seal is breaking Clockwork," a low voice said, intruding on the usual silence of Clockwork's domain. The girl had also broken the silence, but the room had seemed to accept that, as if she were a natural part of the surroundings. The new voice disturbed the peaceful atmosphere, making the little girl scowl. She made her way around a corner to pout in the general direction of the pair of Observers._

_"The seal will hold," Clockwork replied calmly but the girl could tell he was irritated simply by the way he was holding himself._

_"You can't know that," the second Observer protested. "You've seen the future as well as we have. You know the seal will break."_

_"Yes, I do," was Clockwork's brisk reply. "But not for some time."_

_"It does not matter how long we have," the first Observer snapped. "It simply matters that it will happen. This eventuality must be prevented."_

_"It cannot," was the simple response._

_"Lies," the second Observer hissed and the girl scowled, tapping one foot impatiently on the floor. She had homework to do, but she couldn't start it until Clockwork dealt with the creature trapped in the Tupperware container._

_"Excuse me," she cut in impatiently. "But I sort of have a problem." She shook the container pointedly in the direction of the Observers who had turned to stare at her, startled by her sudden appearance._

_"Not now you insolent child," the first Observer hissed. "We grown ups have an important business to discuss."_

_"Just 'cause you're dead doesn't make you grown up," the girl retorted. "And I don't think you're acting like an adult." The Observers released offended noises in tandem, but Clockwork chuckled and reached down to tousle the girl's blonde hair. She beamed up at him and thrust the Tupperware container towards him proudly, showing off her catch. Clockwork smiled down at her and opened his mouth to speak, but whatever he was about to say was washed out by a_ horrible beeping noise.

Hanna Weiss groaned and dug a hand free of her covers to smack the source of the irritating sound, silencing the alarm. She was tempted to go back to sleep, but if she did she would miss her window of opportunity when it came to the small, naturally occurring portal in the local park. The blonde rolled out of bed with a groan and headed for the bathroom, bleary grey eyes barely open enough to help her avoid running into any walls or furniture. Hopefully a warm shower would help wake her up completely because she had a lot of work to do today.

Hanna Marie Weiss, formerly a resident of the rainy city of Seattle, Washington, had moved to Scottsdale, Arizona just after her eighteenth birthday. She had been mourning the death of her foster parents, killed in a car accident on a icy January day, and had wanted to get as far away from Seattle as possible. Scottsdale had the added perk of a natural occurring portal to the Ghost Zone that opened every day at 7:10 in the morning. Unfortunately this meant that the twenty year old had to get up early on her few days off from the couple classes she was taking at a community college and her part time job selling lattes to tourists and locals alike so she could train with Clockwork.

Hanna was half ghost and in line to be the next master of time should anything happen to Clockwork that rendered him unable to continue his duties. It wasn't a job she particularly wanted, especially not after watching Clockwork deal with the pesky Observers for years, but it did have perks. One of them was that, even outside of Clockwork's domains, she could see threads of the future. She didn't catch all of them, but she could normally pick up a wide variety of options for a person. Making guesses about how the future was going to happen was always easier when she could combine several connected threads at once because it narrowed down options, but Clockwork always said that being able to pick up some of the picture was always better than nothing.

"Speaking of some of the picture," Hanna mused, pulling her still damp hair into a ponytail and allowing it to fall over one shoulder. The dream had been weird. It wasn't that she had dreamed about something that had actually happened, she'd seen enough strange things by this point in her life to have nightmares for years, but that the dream had been so clear and easy to follow. Most of her dreams, real or simply figments of her imagination, were jerky and difficult to follow once she was awake but this one had been as clear as if she was watching it on the television. The whole situation was weird and she found herself wondering whether or not it had been significant.

Bag packed and breakfast eaten, she slipped on a pair of her favorite flip flops and headed out the door, making sure her apartment was locked before hitting the street. Warm sunlight was already filtering down on her as she headed for the park. Even though it was only April, temperatures would still be reaching the eighties or nineties each day but it was early enough that the brilliant sunlight still felt good when it reached her shoulders. People were out and about this early to avoid the worst of the heat so Hanna found herself waving at bicyclists or people walking their dogs as she made the fifteen minute trek to the park. Once there, she jogged down the path to a secluded area not far from the bathrooms and glanced around to make sure no one was watching before stepping through the portal.

The Ghost Zone was always a cooler temperature than Arizona and Hanna shivered, regretting wearing shorts and a tank top during the moment it took for her to transform. She soared along towards Clockwork's domain, not really paying attention to where she was going. She had the route memorized. "What'cha up to babypop?" a familiar voice called and Hanna turned her head to grin at Ember. The former pop star abandoned one of the natural occurring islands of earth in the Ghost Zone to fly along the young woman. Hanna had known Ember since she was six because she'd gotten lost and accidentally wander out of Clockwork's domain. She'd ended up in Ember's home, sobbing hysterically because she had just wanted to go home. Ember had comforted the small girl and they'd ended up building an eventually friendship. Unfortunately that friendship often involved Ember calling the other girl babypop like she was still six instead of twenty.

"Training as usual," Hanna replied, rolling her eyes. "Nothing fun, I promise you."

Ember made a face at that. "You need to relax babypop. All work and no play makes Oracle a dull girl." Hanna grinned at that and Ember grinned back, reaching over to tug on the other girl's now blue hair. "We need to have a girl's night out soon."

"Sounds good," Hanna agreed, grinning at the thought of all the chaos she and Ember could cause together. "I'll stop by your place after training and we'll set a date for our girl's night." Ember nodded and drifted off, probably heading over the check on her sometimes boyfriend Skulker. Hanna increased her speed and a few minutes later she entered Clockwork's domain.

Her surroundings were quiet but that was far from unusual. Aside from Dan Phantom pounding on the inside of the Fenton Thermos where Danny Fenton had trapped him, the area was normally quiet. The current state of Clockwork's home was worrying. It looked as if someone had staged a battle within the confines of Clockwork's home. Drips of ectoplasm slid down the walls along with some kind of black sludge that seemed to have gold glitter flecked through it. It reminded her of the creature she'd been carrying around in the Tupperware container in her dream.

Hanna made her way cautiously further into the room, stepping around puddles of black goo. "Clockwork?" she called hesitantly, voice echoing off the high ceiling. Her stomach twisted uncomfortably when she didn't get an answer. The bad feeling wasn't helped by the fact that every single one of Clockwork's viewing windows was dark. She reached out a hand to touch one of the windows, jumping when static rushed across it but no picture. Something was wrong here. "Clockwork?" she called again but this time she wasn't expecting an answer. Behind her, a Fenton Thermos rattled ominously.

* * *

For once everything in Amity Park was quiet. Danny Fenton slammed his locker with a grin, glad that he'd made it through the third school day in a row without a ghost attack. He'd been given more leniency for missing school by his parents, who had learned the truth about their son when he'd been helping save the world from the Fenton's referred to as the Phantom Planet incident, but that didn't mean they were happy about how often he did run out of classes. It just meant they didn't give him more chores if he missed his curfew. "Three days without an attack," Tucker said as he and Sam approached.

"No kidding," Sam agreed, leaning over to link her arm with Danny's. "I actually got an uninterrupted date for once."

"It was nice," Danny admitted with a grin at his girlfriend, still marveling at the fact that he and Sam were actually dating.

"Hey," a female voice called and Valerie Gray hurried over to join them, backpack slung over one shoulder. Besides Tucker, Sam, and his family, Valerie was the only other person who knew that Danny Fenton was Amity Park's hero, Danny Phantom. That the Huntress actually knew Danny's secret made ghost hunting a whole lot easier than it had been before. "Do you guys have plans tonight?" Val asked as she walked with them towards the entrance to the school.

"I don't think so," Danny said. "With all this free time, my homework is even done. It's weird."

"I know the feeling," Val agreed with a wry grin. "If you guy's don't have any objections, there's a new action flick out in theaters and I have a day off from work. Want to go see it?"

"I heard the CGI in that is awesome," Tucker said, looking up from his PDA to grin at Val. "Count me in!" Danny glanced at Sam in question and she nodded slightly.

"We're in," he told Val with a grin. "Meet you guys at the theater at eight?"

"Sounds good," Val agreed.

Warm sunshine washed over them all as they exited Casper High with the other chattering students. There was only about a month of school left and the weather was finally warming up which meant that most students were anxious to get out of class every day. Danny and his friends were no exception. The four friends chatted amicably in the sunshine, none of them in a hurry to get moving. It was a nice day and they were enjoying not having to rush off to detention because of skipped classes.

"Hey Danny, are you coming?" Jazz called from by the student parking lot.

"Oh right, Mom and Dad had something new they wanted to show me," Danny said, smiling sheepishly at his friends. "I've got to go. See you guys tonight?"

"Yeah," Sam agreed, leaning over to kiss his cheek. "We'll see you later Danny." He grinned and waved a quick goodbye as he hurried to join Jazz, slipping into the passenger seat of the car she'd gotten for her eighteenth birthday. It wasn't the prettiest vehicle but it ran smoothly and Jazz was happy with it.

"How was your day?" the red head questioned as she pulled out of the student parking lot.

"Ghost free," Danny replied with a grin that Jazz returned. "I don't know what's causing this sudden lull in ghost attacks, but I like it."

"Maybe your reputation has spread far enough that ghost don't want to risk it," Jazz suggested. "This could be a more permanent situation instead of a temporary thing."

"That would be nice," Danny admitted wistfully. As much as he enjoyed fighting ghosts, part of him really wanted to be a normal boy with normal high school experiences. With the frequent ghost attacks, he couldn't even go out on a date with Sam without being interrupted. The past three days had been awesome. He had all his homework done, he hadn't missed class, and he'd had an uninterrupted date with Sam. Jazz hummed in agreement and pulled into the driveway of Fenton Works. "Do you know what Mom and Dad wanted to show us?"

"They didn't say," Jazz replied. "But whatever it was, they were really absorbed in it when I left."

"Guess we'll find out," Danny said and Jazz nodded in agreement.

They entered an unusually quiet house. Danny and Jazz exchanged worried looks. The Fenton home rarely managed to be completely silent. Even when their parents were in the basement lab, their children could normally hear their voices. "Mom? Dad?" Jazz called hesitantly and Danny allowed the transformation to sweep over him, hoping there wasn't a problem but unwilling to risk being with limited powers if there really was something wrong.

"We're downstairs sweetie," Maddie Fenton called from the basement and the two relaxed a little. Danny led the way into the basement where their parents were leaning over what appeared to be some kind of scanner.

"Is there something wrong?" Jazz asked when their father didn't spin around the instant they entered the basement and start babbling about his newest invention.

"We're getting very strange readings from the Ghost Zone, sweetie," their mother replied. "In fact, I think it might be best if we seal the Fenton Portal until we find out what's going on."

"Close the Fenton Portal?" Danny asked shocked.

"Yes Danny," their mother said firmly as their father continued to study the readings. "It's for the best."

"Are you sure Mom?" Jazz asked. "I'm not sure if that is the best option. What if you never find out what's going on? You can't seal up the Fenton Portal forever. It's the entire basis of your work."

"We'll do what we have to in order to keep you too safe," their dad cut in, looking up from the readings for the first time since Danny and Jazz had come into the lab. His usual jovial expression was worried as he gazed at them, as if he were afraid something might burst out of the portal to take them away at any moment.

"I agree with Jazz," Danny spoke up. "I think I should go into the Ghost Zone and take a look around. Maybe I can figure out what's going on."

"No," came the immediate reply from his mother. "It's too dangerous."

"It doesn't have to be tonight," Jazz said, trying to keep the situation calm. "You guys can seal up the portal tonight and think about it. If the weird readings are still around tomorrow, then you can debate over whether or not Danny can go in. If not, it's just a false alarm and everything can go back to normal. There's no need to take such permanent action over something that you don't know for sure is permanent. Or even a bad thing."

Danny waited nervously while his parents considered what Jazz had said. As much as he was enjoying the lack of ghost attacks, he couldn't picture his life without access to the Ghost Zone. The Fenton Portal had changed his life, changing him from weedy little Danny Fenton into a hero. Life without it just seemed strange. It didn't help that he now knew there was probably something nasty on the other end just searching for a way to get out. "Okay," their mother said at last. "We'll seal up the portal tonight and consider what both of you have said before making a decision."

"Thanks Mom," Danny said and Maddie smiled at him.

"Now that this whole mess is settled, why don't we go get some fudge," Jack Fenton suggested enthusiastically, smile only widening when when his family laughed. Danny allowed himself to relax at the sudden return to normalcy, turning back into a human. He didn't know what was going on in the Ghost Zone, but with his family and friends by his side he knew that everything would work out. It always did.


	2. Chapter 2

A quick loop of Clockwork's domain, booted footsteps tapping lightly as she dodged puddles of goo, confirmed Hanna's suspicions. Clockwork was gone, whether dead or simply missing she wasn't sure, and not even his staff had been left behind. The only real sign that he had fought were the occasional drops of ectoplasm on the floor. Whatever had come here had been strong enough to take down Clockwork, perhaps even catch him unaware. If it was capable of taking one of the most powerful ghosts Hanna had ever met down, then she certainly didn't want to meet whatever it was in a dark alley some night. The results wouldn't be pretty.

Hanna wrapped her arms around her stomach and shivered as she stared pensively at one of the blank viewing portals, considering her next move. Going to the Observers was out. They would do nothing more than bemoan what might have happened to Clockwork and try to shove his duties on to her. Not happening. Still, the Observers would at least know what had happened here. Her nose wrinkled at the thought of trying to speak to them. The last thing she wanted to do after finding this mess was to argue with them about something she didn't fully understand. No, she was going to have to figure this out herself.

Hesitantly she reached out a bare hand and pressed it against the outer frame of the viewing portal, watching the dance of static across its surface as she poured her power into it. Red eyes narrowed in concentration, she increased the flow of power until the static washed away to reveal Clockwork. Her mentor appeared to be studying one of the viewing portals, his back to her. At first glance, everything appeared to be just as it should. Then she noticed the black sludge slowly oozing down one of the walls towards the floor. Heart thumping in her chest, Hanna held her breath as she kept her eyes locked on the ooze, fingers trembling nervously.

When the sludge reached the floor it gathered together, forming a shadow that rose upwards until it towered over Clockwork. It opened its mouth, strands of goo stretching over the empty cavity, and let out a roar that made Clockwork's cloak swish slightly. Hanna watched as the master of time whirled around, snapping "Time out." For a moment the creature froze, and Hanna let out a soft sigh of relief. Then it twitched and suddenly collapsed downwards, completely covering Clockwork in its own body. The creature rose up again to its tower height and Hanna's eyes fell on its midsection. The goo there seemed to be fighting and at times she caught a glimpse of the imprint of Clockwork's staff.

It was agonizing watching as Clockwork managed to rip himself free, covered in goo, only to be slashed at with suddenly created claws of one massive hand. The creature had caught Clockwork completely off guard, something Hanna had previously believed to be impossible, and now she could only watch as it threw her mentor around like a rag doll. She winced as Clockwork hit a wall and crumpled to the floor, the creature looming over him in an instant. She could just barely see Clockwork's mouth moving, as if he were whispering some sort of prayer, and then a brilliant blaze of light filled the entire screen, destroying any hope she had off seeing what was next. When the light finally faded away, the creature was puddles of ooze all across the floor and Clockwork was nowhere to be seen.

Hanna yanked her hand away from the viewing portal with a frustrated hiss and whirled around to scowl moodily at the wall. She had discovered what had happened, but she was no closer to figuring out what to do about it. Talking with the Observers was definitely out now. They likely believed Clockwork to be dead but Hanna knew better. Whatever that thing had been, it hadn't been throwing beams of light around. That had been all Clockwork's doing. The question was, what was that thing? It wasn't like any being she had ever seen before in the Ghost Zone. That was going to make tracking it down very difficult, if it was even still alive.

An ominous creaking sound shook her from her considerations, drawing her attention towards the Fenton Thermos that always sat in a secluded corner of Clockwork's home. Hanna watched in mute horror as gleaming cracks spread across the surface of the thermos. This was not good, not good at all. The cracks grew brighter and wider within seconds and the entire thermos let out an agonized groan before exploding in a blaze of green energy. Hanna shrieked in fright and flung her arms over her face, summoning a shield of ectoplasmic energy to block the shrapnel. Blinking back dots of light in her vision, she dropped her arms and took in the sight of the ghost that could only be Dan Phantom rising to his feet.

His piercing gaze swept almost dismissively over her, as if searching for someone else. Hanna used the opportunity to take him in, brow furrowing. Clockwork had spoken on this ghost only once, and only to warn her of how powerful the Phantom was. While there was undoubtedly a dangerous aura surrounding him, he seemed almost weak in her eyes. Maybe he had expended all his energy escaping? She brushed her curiosity aside for the time being as that red eyed gaze returned to her. She could worry about that after the current crisis was taken care of.

"Where's Clockwork?" he rasped at her and she shrugged in response. It was just her luck to have the first question he asked be one that she genuinely couldn't answer. "Answer me," he demanded and she smirked a little.

"What? The shrug wasn't answer enough?" she said, placing a hand on her hip. "Let me spell it out for you then. I don't know." That made him snarl but Hanna's heartbeat was beginning to slow. Logic was filtering in, allowing her to analyze the situation. From what she could see, Dan was still weak from bursting out of the thermos. She could take him.

"I don't believe you," came the smooth response after a moment and Hanna startled a little. He'd locked up his emotions faster than she'd thought possibly and his stance had turned predatory.

"You think I just spilled this gunk around everywhere for kicks and giggles?" she demanded, waving her arms at the goo puddled across the floor and dripping down the walls.

"You can't fool me. Clockwork sees everything. He would have prepared for my inevitable escape," Dan sneered.

"He didn't see this coming," Hanna mumbled, folding her arms over her chest. That was when one of the puddles of goo twitched and blinked open narrowed violet eyes. Hanna yelped in surprise and aimed a blast at the goo that it simply absorbed, other puddles beginning to slide towards the one with eyes.

"What is that?" Dan demanded sharply but Hanna didn't have an answer. In fact, she was still struggling to come up with a game plan. The creature was going to reform in a minute or so and if Clockwork couldn't beat it then she definitely couldn't. She needed to get out of here.

Hanna squeezed her eyes shut and focused, pulling all her energy together and throwing it into a portal. A roar had her eyes snapping open and she let out a startled shriek, the creature looming over her. It raised clawed hands and she stumbled back a couple steps, catching a glimpse of an slim, open portal to her right. If she could just make it to the portal she could get out of here. She didn't have a clue where it would take her but that didn't really matter. The only problem was that Dan would still be free to wreak havoc.

She dove away from a slice of sharp looking claws, rolling back to her feet. A blast struck the creature in the back, making it stumble, and Dan laughed when the creature turned towards him with a snarl. "Problem solved?" Hanna questioned, arching an eyebrow as she watched Dan Phantom take on the monster. If the thing, whatever it was, managed to destroy him then she didn't have to worry about keeping him in check while she was trying to discover what was actually going on. A moment later that hope evaporated as the creature exploded, goo flying everywhere.

"Nasty," Hanna muttered, shaking a hand to get the goo off of it. A moment later she had other concerns when the vengeful ghost tackled her hard. The pair went flying backwards and somehow ended up slipping through the portal she'd created. I guess I'm going to find out where that portal goes sooner than I expected, she thought ruefully just before they crashed to the ground and the portal snapped shut behind them.

* * *

Danny tossed and turned his way through nightmares of unnamed disasters taking place in the Ghost Zone that night. The small amount of anxiety he'd felt when his parents had announced that they were getting strange readings from the Ghost Zone had steadily increased throughout the evening until it reached the point that he'd struggled to focus on the movie he and his friends had gone to see. It had even been a struggle to fall asleep. After the anxiety of the night, Danny was relieved to wake up to the sounds of his parents arguing about something and rattling around breakfast pans. He rolled out of bed, wobbling a little before getting his balance, and headed for the stairs.

Jazz smiled at him from across the table when he entered the kitchen before glancing back down at whatever book she had been reading. Danny smiled back and navigated his way around his parents, ignoring the smoking skillet and grabbing a box of cereal. His parents could cook but normally they got distracted part way through and whatever food they were in progress of making generally turned into a disaster. Cereal poured into a bowl and milk added, Danny grabbed a spoon and joined Jazz at the table as their mother gestured emphatically at something on the paper she was waving in Dad's face.

"What's got them so excited?" Danny asked his sister in a low voice. "It's not still the readings from last night, is it?"

"I don't think so," Jazz replied. "They checked the portal a little earlier and everything seemed fine."

"Does that mean its unsealed?" Danny asked, brightening at the thought that he could travel into the Ghost Zone and reassure himself that everything was fine.

"Yes," Jazz told him, giving him a knowing smile. "But make sure you finish breakfast before running down there. And take one of the Fenton Phones in case something goes wrong."

"You got it," Danny replied, shoving a spoon full of cereal into his mouth. Jazz giggled when he almost choked on it and then patted his back until he could breathe properly again. He rushed to finish breakfast, sent a quick text to his friends to let them know where he was heading, grabbed one of the Fenton Phones, and opened up the portal. The usual green swirling vortex of the Ghost Zone greeted him. That was reassuring. Whatever the weird readings had been, it didn't look like they'd done much. Danny transformed and launched himself into the vortex.

The Ghost Zone looked no different then it ordinarily did. The doors hung in midair, just as they always did, and the floating islands were still in the correct places. So far, so good. The part of him that had begun to calm when Jazz had told him the readings were gone, relaxed further. "So far, so good," he muttered and increased his speed, heading for Clockwork's domain.


	3. Chapter 3

Clockwork's domain was a nightmare. Danny could only stare in silent horror at the carnage that surrounded him. Some kind of black goo was spread in a thin coating across most of Clockwork's home, occasionally splatters of ectoplasm mixed with it. The master of time himself was nowhere to be seen and, perhaps most worrying of all, the Fenton Thermos that had contained Dan Phantom was gone. Danny lifted a hand to the Fenton Phone to activate it. "Jazz, you there?"

"I'm here," came his sister's voice, the calmness of her tone soothing his quickly fraying nerves. "What's wrong?"

"I'm in Clockwork's home right now and something is seriously wrong," Danny told her, voice wavering a little. "There's this goo all over the floor but I can't find Clockwork anywhere."

"Okay, stay calm," Jazz told him. "I'll grab Sam and Tucker and we'll take the Specter Speeder into the Ghost Zone to meet up with you."

"Okay," Danny agreed, shoulders slumping a little as if a weight had been lifted from them. Now that everyone close to him knew his secret, he didn't have to try to do everything on his own. Instead he could rely on his friends and family to help him.

"We're on our way," Jazz announced suddenly, Danny flinching in surprise. He had been so lost in his own thoughts that a ghost could have easily snuck up on him and attacked him. That wasn't a good feeling. Danny quickly scanned his surroundings for any sign of trouble and then relaxed when he saw that he was still alone.

"How far away are you guys?" he asked, beginning to pace.

"We're only a couple minutes away," Sam's voice informed him. She sounded worried. "This thing has got you really shaken up, hasn't it?"

"Last time I was in a place without Clockwork present in the Ghost Zone, he was dead and I was being hunted by my evil future self," Danny replied, his voice going a little sharp.

"But your future self is locked in a Fenton Thermos," Tucker pointed out reasonably.

"Not anymore," was Danny's dark reply as he turned his attention towards the empty corner of Clockwork's home. "The thermos is gone." That earned him a series of choked sounds on the other end of the line that would have been funny under other circumstances.

"You mean he's free?" Sam demanded, sounding even more worried than she had before.

"Either that or someone stole his thermos," Danny agreed, increasing his pacing speed in order to deal with some of the anxious energy filling him. "I'm not sure which option is worse."

"I don't think he's free yet," Jazz cut in, always the voice of reason. "From what you three have told me, if Danny's future self was free we would have already seen him."

"Right," Danny agreed, letting out a shaky breath. "You're probably right."

"I usually am," Jazz teased and Danny let out a little borderline hysterical giggle. He turned to make another round of his new pacing track and caught sight of the Specter Speeder approaching. Letting out a sigh of relief, Danny lifted his hand and waved at Jazz, Sam, and Tucker. Tuck and Sam waved back as Jazz maneuvered the Speeder to park alongside Clockwork's home. The three stepped out and joined him, Danny leading the way into the master of time's home.

Jazz, Tucker, and Sam gasped when they took in their surroundings. "What happened here?" Tucker asked, actually slipping his PDA into his pocket.

"I have no idea," Danny replied. "But I doubt it was anything good." Sam nodded in agreement and stepped further into Clockwork's home.

"Uh, guys, is that goo moving?" Jazz asked, her voice going high with shock. Danny's head snapped around and his eyes went wide with shock. The goo was moving, slowly, creeping together and rising upwards. Danny shifted so he was standing between the rapidly reforming creature and his big sister.

"I know we see strange things on a regular basis, but this is really weird," Tucker said as the creature blinked open violet eyes and then roared at them. Danny aimed a blast of ectoplasm at the creature that it simply absorbed, letting out a low predatory sounding rumble.

"Well that's not gonna work," he mumbled and changed tactics to ice that slowly rose up the creature's chest until it had consumed it completely.

"Nice job Danny," Jazz cheered s Danny lifted a hand and shattered the ice, sending chunks of the creature flying everywhere.

"What was that thing?" Sam asked, carefully stepping around Danny to kneel next to one still frozen section.

"I was hoping you'd have an idea," Danny replied, kneeling next to her. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"Do you think this is what got Clockwork?" Tucker asked, picking up a piece and chucking it at a wall after studying it for a moment.

"Judging by the condition it was in when we arrived, I'd say he got it," Sam replied, scooping up the piece. "Do you think your parents will have something that can analyze this?"

"Probably," Danny and Jazz replied together, grinning at each other.

"If not they'll make something," Jazz continued.

"Let's just get it back before it melts and starts reforming again," Danny said, grabbing Sam's arm and tugging her gently towards the Specter Speeder. "Because I have an awful feeling that this thing won't fall for the same trick twice."

* * *

Hanna's back slammed hard on to something that felt like wet dirt and a canopy of green passed by at incredible speed overhead before they finally skidded to a stop. She gasped, pulled in a full breath, and shoved Dan off of her. Without two hundred pounds of ghost, however that worked, lying on top of her she could push herself upright and study her surroundings. Massive tree trunks too big for her to wrap her arms around towered, up, up, up to blot out the sun. Massive green leaves as big as her head sprung from the branches and she could hear birds chirping, undisturbed by their abrupt arrival. "Where are we?" Dan demanded, towering over her, and Hanna shrugged. She had an idea but the only way to tell whether or not she was correct was her phone and if they really were where she thought they were, she probably wasn't going to have a signal.

She stood and brushed as much of the damp earth off of her as she could manage before swinging her backpack off her shoulders and digging in it for her cell. A tap of the correct button brought it to life and she input the password to see her suspicions confirmed. No signal. The only information it told her was that it was eleven forty-five in the morning the day after she'd entered the portal. She was officially late for work. Great. "Take a guess," the irritated ghost growled and Hanna let out an irritated breath before turning and flashing a wide smile at him.

"The Amazon Rainforest." The blonde watched in satisfaction as Dan Phantom's eyes widened in shock. Laughter bubbled up in her chest and she forced it down, struggling to keep control of her facial expression. After a moment she gave in and burst into giggles. "That expression is priceless," she managed to choke out between giggles, ignoring the growl that comment earned her. A blast of ectoplasm silenced her mid giggle, the flash of light barely missing her head. "Rude," she snapped, good mood ruined, as she turned to face the ghost with her hands planted on her hips.

"Are you finished?" he asked pointedly.

"For the moment," she replied. "If only because we need to pick a direction and start walking so maybe we can get out of here."

"Or you could just open up another portal and take us back," Dan suggested, voice full of low menace. Hanna snorted in response.

"Good luck with that. I kind of stink at this portal opening thing. Plus it takes a lot more energy than I can afford to expend right now."

Dan studied her skeptically and then said, "You're being serious."

"Completely," she confirmed. "I hate to break it to you, but we're stuck here for at least a couple days." Dan studied her for a moment, as if trying to decide whether or not he believed her, and then let out a put upon sigh. "Oh don't act as if I've set back your plans for world domination or something like that," she said, rolling her eyes. "You're weaker than I am right now."

"You had best hope I am," was his response, the smirk crossing his face enough to make her roll her eyes again. He was all bark and no bite right now and she knew it.

Instead of responding any further, Hanna turned her back on him and started walking. The temperature was rising steadily and in her ghost form it was almost unbearable, but she didn't trust Dan Phantom as far as she could throw him which, admittedly, wasn't very far. She wasn't going to risk changing back only to have him use what little power he had to eliminate her. She'd rather suffer than be promoted to fully dead. As much as she enjoyed the company of some of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone, Ember and Kitty to name a few, the last thing she wanted to do was float around behind a door hidden in a swirling green vortex. Not really her thing.

She didn't have to look behind her to know that Dan was following her. The fact that her ghost sense, a stream of aqua that slipped over her lips in a thin stream for a moment, kept going off was enough. The prickling between her shoulders where his gaze had fallen was just an added bonus. Hanna resisted the urged to shoot an irritated glare over her shoulder as she climbed over a massive tree root, one hand pressed to the damp bark to keep her balance. The further she walked the higher the humidity seemed to rise, reaching almost unbearable levels. Thunder rumbled ominously overhead, warning her of coming rain. Great. Just what she needed.

As if cued by her thoughts,fat rain drops began plummeting down through the massive leaves to the ground below. Hanna managed to dodge the first few drops but when one finally smacked her it was with enough force to hurt. Hanna winced and took shelter in a large hole in the trunk of a tree, snickering as she watched Dan try to dodge raindrops before finally turning intangible and making his way over to join her. "Great job stranding us in the middle of a rainforest," he growled was he'd ducked inside and become solid again.

"Hey, I'm not the one who shoved us both through a portal without knowing where it led to," Hanna snapped back, folding her arms over her chest.

"I assumed it would head somewhere reasonable," Dan hissed at her in reply. "Actually I assumed you knew what you were doing when you created it."

"Well la-di-freakin-da," Hanna retorted, rolling her eyes. She leaned further against the bark at her back with a huff, scowling at her companion for the time being. Oh why couldn't the goo monster have killed him? It would have made her life so much easier. "Maybe next time you'll actually look and see where a portal is leading before you dive headlong through it," she muttered under the sound of the rain. Judging by the glare that comment earned her, he'd heard her anyway. She wasn't sure she cared at this point. It wasn't as if he could incinerate her right now. He probably had enough power to fire a couple ectoplasm blast at her, which would sting, but if she was estimating his current power level correctly, he couldn't destroy her.

With time to think, her mind turned towards the goo monster in Clockwork's lair. Dan had made it explode for the second time, but that didn't necessarily mean it was dead. Clockwork hadn't killed it when he'd somehow exploded it so that mean the thing was probably still alive. Hanna could only hope that it didn't reform and start wandering the Ghost Zone. The last thing she needed was a visit from irate Observers whining about how she'd allowed a monster to wander unchecked since she was to take up Clockwork's duties in his absence. In her current agitated state, she'd probably blast them.

The sound of rainfall began to lessen so Hanna pushed herself upright and headed for the entrance, peering outside. The air still felt ridiculously humid, especially since she'd spent several years living in the dry air of Arizona, but the rain drops were falling more slowly now. She stretched out a cautious hand and grinned when the splash of water against her palm didn't sting. "Rain's letting up," she called over her shoulder, stepping out from the safety of the tree trunk. "So let's get moving. The further we walk today, the better chance we have of actually finding civilization." She didn't pause for a response, simply marching off the direction she'd been walking before the downpour.


	4. Chapter 4

Sunset couldn't arrive soon enough. The heat had forced Hanna to transform back into human form, and sweat was dripping down her back. The temperature was lessening gradually but the humidity level was still high and hiking through the jungle hadn't helped keep her body temperature down. Luckily, water had been easy enough to find otherwise she would have been struggling to function at this point. She paused, leaning heavily against a tree, and wiped a hand across her sweaty forehead. Next time if she created a portal she was definitely making sure she knew where it was leading. If she didn't, she was going to close it immediately because this was definitely not fun.

"Getting tired?" Dan questioned from just over her right shoulder. Hanna barely managed to keep herself from jumping in surprise, teeth gritting together. "I hear it's a downside to being human."

"In case you don't remember, you were human once," she shot back sourly, patience running thin. Dan had been full of snide comments since it had stopped raining and her patience was wearing thin. She was about two comments away from trying to incinerate him, which wouldn't end well.

"My humanity was a weakness," Dan drawled. "I simply removed the weakness."

"And added another one," Hanna shot back. "I mean a cape? Come on. What were you going for? One-dimensional super villain?" Dan scowled at her and Hanna felt a wide smirk cross her face. "Seriously, next time you go through all the trouble to redesign your outfit, ditch the cape." That said, she pushed herself upright and started walking again, trying to ignore the little voice in her head that kept reminding her that she had no idea where she was going. Dan, silenced for the moment, followed.

"What's wrong with my cape?" Dan asked after a few moments of hiking in relative silence.

"Well for starters, capes belong to every super villain ever," Hanna pointed out, jumping over a tree root. "It's pretty much stereotypical by this point. Then there's the fact that someone can throw you by the cape or you can end up trapped by it. It's just a bad idea."

"I'm a ghost," Dan argued, sounding almost like a little kid whining about not getting candy at the grocery store. "The likelihood of me getting grabbed by the cape and not being able to get out is very low."

"Yes, but it's always the one time it does happen that gets you killed."

"I'm already dead."

"That's irrelevant."

"Actually, it is relevant," Dan replied. "It's the basis of your argument."

"The basis of my argument is that capes are hazardous to one's health. The fact that it could get you killed is a side note," Hanna retorted, scowling at the smirking ghost. "And in your case, dead simply translates to non-existent."

"The number of things that can actually kill ghosts is relatively low so, once again, I don't think I have to worry," Dan informed her, still smirking.

"The number of things that can actually kill ghosts include other ghosts and a large amount of the weapons made by the Fenton family," was Hanna's reply to that, arms folded over his chest.

"Most of what the Fentons make doesn't actually hurt ghosts," Dan informed her. "Believe me, I would know." She sighed and rolled her eyes, giving up on the argument. It was going nowhere fast. The sounds of bugs chirping grew louder and louder as the surrounding area grew increasingly darker. Hanna strained her eyes against the darkness until she started tripping over very large and very obvious tree roots before transforming again. The faint glow coming off her skin helped her navigate better, as well as staving off her growing exhaustion and hunger.

"This is ridiculous," Hanna muttered under her breath as she picked up her pace, determined to actually get somewhere. "I am taking the Amazon Rainforest off my list of places to visit when I get home. No thank you."

"What was that?" Dan asked in a tone that implied he'd heard exactly what she'd said.

"Shut up," she retorted sourly. Dan snorted and she rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Whatever you say, sweetheart."

Hanna caught sight of his smirk and turned her gaze towards the heavens, allowing herself to become intangible so she could walk straight through the tree in front of her instead of going around it. "Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed," she muttered before she stepped out the other side. Today was shaping up to be one those days, despite being almost over. A sudden idea struck her and a wide grin crossed her face. There was plenty of water in the air and although she wasn't the greatest at controlling it, because it had been pretty much impossible to find a teacher, she was good enough for this.

A controlled swirl of her fingers gathered some of the water in the air into a ball by her hand and a quick flick of her fingers sent it flying back to splash across Dan's face. Her grin widened as she listened to him sputter, any tension that had gathered between her shoulders during their debate fading away. "You did that," the ghost snapped, trying to sound irritated but mostly coming across as curious. "How?"

"Water core, apparently," she replied with a shrug. To be honest, Hanna was a bit hazy on the details. Ghosts weren't supposed to have water cores. Fire and ice were natural, if a ghost had an elemental core at all, but water was supposed to be too unstable to be a sustainable core.

"That's not possible."

"So I've been told," she replied dryly.

"I don't think you understand how impossible that is," Dan protested. "Water isn't stable enough to-"

"-keep a ghost's core solid or to keep a ghost from falling apart," Hanna interrupted finishing the sentence for him. "Trust me, I know. I've heard it at least a dozen times by now. I think by this point we should acknowledge that impossible means something is only slightly more surprising when it actually happens." At least that was what Hanna had decided a year ago. Everyone had told her that having a water core was impossible and that she shouldn't exist since she'd discovered her talent with water. It wasn't until she stumbled into a conversation with Nocturne that she discovered impossible was little more than someone's perception.

"It still shouldn't be possible," Dan muttered and Hanna smirked, floating upwards and settling on a tree branch. Her eyes felt sandy and her limbs heavy with exhaustion. She didn't exactly trust the ghost, but she was going to need rest if she was going to regain her strength. She didn't have much of a choice.

"Try not to destroy anything while I rest," she mumbled and allowed her eyes to drift shut, the bug noises lulling her to sleep.

* * *

"I've never seen anything like this," Maddie Fenton mumbled as she studied that data that had come from analyzing the frozen chunk of goo.

"Great," Danny muttered, kicking a chair in frustration. "Another mystery to solve." Things had been going so well for him lately but not it looked like his luck had run out. Between Clockwork's disappearance, or death, and the unusual readings from the ghost zone, Danny's relaxing break from ghosts was looking like it was over.

"Have you checked it against the strange readings from earlier," Jazz questioned from a chair across the room, nose buried in some kind of psychology magazine.

"Yes, but they don't quite match up," their mother replied with a frown on her face. "I'll admit they're close, but not close enough to be the same thing." Danny frowned and sank down into the chair he'd just kicked with a frustrated sigh. Why could life not go easy on him for once?

"I'm sorry sweetie," his mother said, walking over and leaning down to kiss his forehead. "I'll run a few more tests and see what else I can find out about this thing but it's going to take a while. Why don't you go meet Tucker and Sam for dinner and relax a bit?"

"Okay," Danny agreed, knowing he wouldn't be of any help in the lab. A lot of what his parents used as toxic to ghosts, especially for the more specialized tests, so he couldn't handle it.

A text to both his girlfriend and best friend had them planning to meet at the Nasty Burger in ten minutes. Val was out of town visiting her grandmother this weekend so she couldn't join them but she'd made Danny promise to keep her posted on anything that happened and this definitely qualified. Danny sent off a couple messages explaining the events of the past couple days before going ghost and soaring towards the fast food restaurant that had caused him so much pain in an alternate timeline. He managed to arrive before either of his friends and stepped inside to get a booth.

In the two minutes it took Tucker and Sam to arrive, Val sent him half a dozen text messages that were different variations of "WHAT?!" while he struggled to reply to her through the interruptions. "Have the results come in yet?" Tucker asked, sliding in the seat across the table from Danny.

"Yeah," Danny mumbled, sliding over so Sam could sit next to him. "But it doesn't match anything she has on record. It comes close to the weird readings she got yesterday from the Ghost Zone but not close enough to be a match."

"But she has to have some idea, right?" Tucker questioned, looking worried, as Danny finally managed to text Val back.

"None yet. She's running a few more specialized test but the results will take longer to process." Their conversation paused for them to order and then picked back up where they'd left off.

"Don't worry Danny," Sam said, nudging her shoulder against his. "We'll figure it out, just like always."

"Yeah," Danny muttered, spinning the paper placement around in circles until Sam reached out a hand to stop him.

"Don't worry," she told him with a soft smile.

"Yeah, man," Tucker chimed in. "You're Danny Phantom. Whatever thing is out there should be afraid of you." A smile slipped on to Danny's face at that and his friends grinned.

"Have you told Val what's going on?" Sam asked as the waitress brought their food over, setting it down and bustling off to another table. At night the Nasty Burger turned into some kind of weird sit down restaurant and they'd all heard Valerie complain more than once about working during those times. Apparently there were never enough workers scheduled to work compared to the amount of people that came in to eat.

"No," Danny deadpanned, fighting down a wicked smirk. "I figured I'd let Tucker do it."

"What?" Tucker sputtered, almost choking on the drink he'd taken just before Danny'd spoke. "No way man!" Danny started laughing, Sam joining him when the text message from Val appeared on Danny's phone. "Not funny," Tucker muttered but he was grinning almost reluctantly.

"What does she think about this?" Sam asked before taking a bite of her vegetable wrap.

"Mostly I got a lot of 'whats'," Danny replied with a shrug, opening up the message and shaking his head at Val's complaint that everything exciting always happened while she was gone or busy. "She's as confused as everyone else."

They ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Tucker said, "You know, normally I'd say this was Vlad's doing but he's still floating around in space, right?" Danny and Sam exchanged startled looks, eyes going wide as sudden possibilities flooded their minds. "Right guys?" Tucker asked again, sounding nervous.

"After the events of today?" Danny replied. "I'm not so sure."


	5. Chapter 5

A huge leaf dumped all the water that had gathered on it on her face. Hanna tumbled off the branch she'd been sleeping on with a startled yelp, mud squishing her when she hit the ground. She half expected to hear someone laughing at her misfortune but there was nothing besides the thundering of rain and the occasional chirp of a bird. She frowned and sat up, mud sticking to her clothes, skin, and hair. Some time during the night she had transformed back into a human and the fact that Dan hadn't taken advantage of the so-called weakness and tried to kill her was a miracle. That he was missing now was something less than stellar. At least the rainforest they were in wasn't burnt to the ground.

She stood and turned intangible for a moment, mud dropping back to the ground, and then floated upwards, grinning triumphantly when it didn't drain her almost immediately. Opening portals to different places within the Ghost Zone while standing inside the Ghost Zone was easy. Anything else strained her at this point, though Clockwork had promised that it would get easier with time. She hoped he was right.

Now that flying was an option again, she could cover ground much more quickly than she had the day before. That was good. It meant that if she picked the right direction she would have a chance to find Dan before he managed to regain his full strength. The problem was picking the right direction. She considered her options carefully. Theoretically, if she had enough energy to fly then Dan would have enough too. That mean he would probably be looking for civilization. Keeping that in mind, Hanna headed upwards, turning intangible again so the rain wouldn't leave bruises. She cleared the tree line and peered through the rain, looking out across the trees. In one direction it seemed to go on forever, stretching out in an endless sea of green. The next two were much the same but in the third direction she found herself looking towards the edge of the forest. A slow, triumphant grin crossed her face. Definitely that direction.

Hanna allowed herself to drop down beneath that, letting the large leaves shield her from the downpour. She hadn't seen Dan flying above the tree line when she'd gone up to look for civilization so she thought it safe to assume that the ghost was also flying below the canopy. Keeping an eye on the ground below, she flew towards the edge of the forest, dodging trees. The further she flew without catching sight of Dan, the more worried she became. The last thing she needed was for a homicidal ghost to destroy the world while Clockwork had stepped out of the universe for a break. She didn't need to give the Observers something to hang over her head already.

She poured on a little more speed in response to those thoughts and then found herself freezing in midair a moment later. Dan was settled on a large tree branch trying to bat away several curious Spider Monkeys. She covered her hand to muffle a giggle as she watched him growl at a particular tenacious one that had settled on his shoulder. "Have you tried..." She trailed off into hysterical giggles and then started again. "Have you tried going intangible?" Dan growled in response and aimed a blast of ectoplasm at her that she darted away from. One of the monkeys tried to grab the flames that made up Dan's hair and then shrieked at the heat, darting back and yelling unhappily. The others followed suit, glaring at Dan as if he had betrayed them. The sight only made Hanna laugh harder.

"Stop laughing at me," the irritated ghost grumbled and Hanna obediently clapped a hand over her mouth, unsuccessfully fighting giggles.

"Here I was worried you were going to try destroying the world," she managed to get out. "Only to find you thwarted by monkeys."

"My powers have not fully returned to me," Dan grumbled, sounding for all the world like he was pouting. That started up Hanna's giggles again and she gave up containing them. This was just too good. "Stop. Laughing," Dan grated out as Hanna draped herself over a nearby tree branch, snickering too hard to remain floating.

"I can't," she said. "This is just too good."

Evidently that was the straw the broke the camel's back because a moment later he was looming over her, eyes blazing and the glow of ectoplasm in one raised hand. "I would not test my patience after all that's happened," he growled out, voice dark. Hanna felt a shiver go down her spine and she shifted her fingers, gathering the still falling rain behind her back and then sent it flying in his direction. The lopsided sphere struck him squarely in the head and exploded, temporarily dousing his hair. Dan floated there, blinking water out of his eyes almost on reflex and looking startled, and Hanna struggled not to start giggling again as she turned intangible and dropped through the tree branch.

A moment later she rose up on the other side of the branch, expression back under control. "Want to try that again?" she demanded, hands on her hips. "I've got plenty of ammo around here." She gestured almost absently at the still falling rain, slightly startled when the water swirled around her without any effort. That was new. Dan studied her for a moment, eyebrows arched, and Hanna bit down another bought of giggles as his hair flared back to life.

"I have other tricks in my arsenal," he said after a moment's appraisal. So they were hashing this out now then. Fine. A flick of her wrist sent the water that had swirled around her crashing into Dan, propelling him backwards a few feet. He retaliated with a blast of ectoplasm that clipped her side, making her wince. That was definitely going to leave a mark. Hanna shot back her own blast and growled low in her throat when he simply turned intangible. Then he duplicated himself.

Hanna scowled at that. She hadn't even managed to duplicate part of her body, let alone creating a second copy of herself. Her tenuous control over water was likely going to be her only advantage in this fight since she could stop and start time at will like Clockwork could. She dodged the blast from the original and turned intangible so that the copy flew through her instead of tackling her. On the plus side, this was good combat practice but the downside was that she hadn't had much combat experience. Clockwork had focused more on the manipulation of time than cultivating any abilities she might need to use to fight. After all, his job was that of watching the time stream for the most part, not fighting.

Twisting her hand in a scooping motion towards her own chest, Hanna gathered water in her palm. Then she thrust her arm outwards, sending the water snaking around her torso before racing towards Dan's chest. The ghost was propelled backwards to slam into a tree. He slumped for a moment and then lifted his head, red eyes blazing. Hanna watched, eyes widening as he pulled it into a deep and let it out in a haunting sounding wail. The force of the sound sent her toppling backwards to hit a tree hard. For a moment the sound waves pinned her there. Then they cut off as suddenly as they had begun. Hanna tumbled earthward, head spinning. Her vision blurred and the world around her was moving like a merry-go-round right before she crashed into the muddy earth and her eyelids snapped shut.

* * *

Danny somehow managed to get a few hours of sleep after tossing and turning restlessly in his bed, trying to figure out how he was going to discover if Vlad was still in space or not. The easiest way would be to fly out of one of the portals that led into space in the Ghost Zone but he didn't want to risk bringing the man back to Earth if he was. That meant they needed to come up with a better way. The problem was, Danny couldn't think of another option. That coupled with the knowledge that there was something lurking about the Ghost Zone was enough to make what little sleep he did get fraught with nightmares.

He woke to someone rapping on his door frame. He forced heavy eyelids open and rolled over to focus sleepily on Jazz who smiled at him in amusement. "Wake up, sleepyhead. Mom got some interesting test results she wants to show us after breakfast." Danny mumbled an agreement and burrowed deeper under the covers, planning on going back to sleep the instant Jazz was gone. "Also," his sister continued. "There's a twelve year old girl calling herself Danielle Phantom sitting downstairs eating Dad's homemade pancakes."

"What?" Danny asked, suddenly wide awake.

"You heard me," his sister replied. "Mom and Dad would like an explanation."

"Okay, I'll be down in a minute," he told her and rolled out of bed. Fifteen minutes later, showered and marginally more awake, Danny made his way downstairs to join his family in the kitchen. Just as Jazz had said, Dani was sitting down at the table chowing down on a veritable pile of Jack Fenton's homemade pancakes.

Cooking was not exactly a forte of either of the Fenton parents but somewhere along the line, their father had learned how to make edible pancakes. The breakfast food had become a Sunday morning tradition in the Fenton household and normally everyone ate more than they should, but the amount of pancakes on Dani's plate was truly astounding. "Hi Danny," the girl chirped, turning towards him with bright blue eyes.

"Uh, hi," Danny said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by," she said with an innocent smile that was a couple steps too far into faking it.

"Really?" Danny questioned and she flushed before turning around and taking another huge bite of pancake.

"Why don't the two of you talk after breakfast?" Maddie told them with a smile that made Danny's instincts scream danger. Yeah, his mom definitely was going to be cornering him for answers later. Breakfast was eaten in awkward silence, the only noises being Dani's enthusiastic chewing. Jazz cleaned the plates away after they were finished eating while Maddie washed and Jack dried. Danny used the time to grab Dani and pull her into the living room.

"Okay, what happened?" he demanded in a low, concerned voice. The last time he'd seen Danielle had been during the Phantom Planet incident where she'd helped make the world intangible before informing him she was hanging out in New York City and flying off.

"There's a couple natural portals in NYC," Dani told him in an equally low tone. "I keep an eye on 'em since ghosts sometimes come out and found this thing creeping out of one."

"Thing?" Danny asked, hoping she wasn't talking about what he thought she was talking about.

"This black goo monster," she replied and his heart sank into his feet. "Wait a minute. Have you seen it too?"

"Something like it at least," he confirmed. "There were some strange readings from the Fenton Ghost Portal so I went in to check on things yesterday. I didn't see any problems but I went to check with Clockwork just to make sure everything was fine. I didn't find him, but I found some kind of goo monster. Part of it's frozen in the lab downstairs while Mom runs tests."

"I managed to lure mine back into the Ghost Zone and shut the portal behind us, which is how I ended up here. I think I lost it on the way though."

A sudden shriek of surprise that sounded frighteningly like Jazz had their heads snapping around towards the kitchen. "Are you sure about that?" Danny asked, knowing in his gut that the creature had followed Dani right to his own home. "Because if so, I think you need to to get a second opinion."

"Yeah, sorry in advance," Dani told him, transforming at the same time he did and following him into battle.


	6. Chapter 6

The creature was looming over Jazz, a soapy plate sticking out of its forehead between two angry violet eyes. If the situation hadn't been so dire, Danny might have been amused that his sister had used a plate, of all things, to try to fend off the creature. "Danielle, get Jazz out of here," Danny ordered, transforming quickly.

"You've got it," Dani told him, transforming as well and lunging towards Jazz. Danny launched himself after her aiming a blast of ectoplasm at the creature's face. The plate shattered on the impact of the blast, sending shards of plate everywhere. The creature growled at him, a low noise that sounded almost as if it were gargling shattered glass.

"Yeah, yeah," Danny told it. "Come and get me." And not Jazz, he added mentally. The further his sister was from danger, the better he would feel, especially since he wasn't sure he could beat this thing. Freezing had worked before, so it was worth a try. He aimed a blast of ice toward the creature's middle as Dani flew Jazz out off the room, sending the crystals creeping upwards and downwards. For a moment it looked like it was working. Then the creature thrashed its whole body, sending shattered shards of ice flying at him. Danny managed to turn intangible before he was stabbed by chunks of ice he created, wincing at the sounds they made sinking into the walls and door behind him. If he had been just a little bit slower, he would have been seriously injured.

"Need some help?" Danielle asked, sticking her head around the doorway and then slamming it quickly before the last chunk of ice hit her in the middle of the forehead.

"Yes," Danny replied emphatically when the door opened a crack again. It would be good to have someone else that could turn intangible to avoid being killed by projectiles in this fight.

"So what's the plan?" she asked with an eager grin.

"We have to blow it up somehow," Danny told her, turning intangible to avoid a clawed swipe from the creature. "At least that's how I beat the last one." Dani nodded and aimed an ectoblast at the creature, shooting up towards the ceiling when it sliced at her with suddenly created claws. She darted around the creature's head, which was almost brushing the ceiling, peppering it with blasts. Danny took advantage of the creature's distraction to start freezing it again. Hopefully this time he'd manage to freeze it before it noticed and broke free. He watched almost nervously as the ice swept steadily upward, just waiting for something to go wrong. Something always did.

Sure enough, the creature quickly grew tired of Dani's games and simply reached out an arm to snatch her out of the air. It slammed her on the ground hard and she stayed there with a dazed groan. Danny shot forward to help her only to be knocked back almost dismissively. He turned intangible to pass through the wall rather than slam into it and after a moment he managed to change direction, lunging back into the fight just in time to keep Danielle from being stabbed by needle sharp claws.

"Thanks," she told him, flashing him a quick grin before shooting up towards the ceiling again and peppering the creature with blows. Miraculously, the ice hadn't completely shattered and the cracks would be easy enough to fix. Staring with the cracks first, he began the painfully slow task of coating the creature. It didn't notice the spread of ice until it could no longer move its arms. It turned a furious violet gaze on Danny and let out a roar that made the walls shake. He ignored it, focusing on spreading the ice faster. The creature strained its neck upward but the ice was relentless until it covered the top of its head.

"Blast it, Dani," he ordered, already turning intangible. Dani's hand glowed and a massive blast of green ectoplasm struck the creature in the back, exploding it into hundreds of razor sharp pieces. They clattered to the ground as Danielle and Danny watched as a violet eye blinked once beneath a coating of ice before going still. "Nice job," Danny told her, landing carefully and nudging aside the shards of ice. Danielle beamed at him and floated over next to his shoulder.

"Danny? Danielle?" Jazz called, hesitantly sticking her head around the door she'd pulled open a little. "Is everything okay in there?"

"Yeah," Danny called back. "The monster's gone, for the moment." Jazz smiled and stepped inside, gently shutting the door behind her.

"Where'd it come from?"

"It might've followed me from New York City via the Ghost Zone," Danielle admitted, hanging her head a little.

"Wait a minute," Jazz cried and Danny's eyes widened in realization.

"Mom and Dad," they said at the same time, running for the basement.

Maddie and Jack Fenton's ghost hunting lab was a mess. Half completed weapons and machines were scattered about with the shattered remains of completed ones. The Fenton parents were nowhere to be seen and the portal to the Ghost Zone was wide open. Danny was staring at the swirling green portal in silent shock. "Mom? Dad?" Jazz called but Danny knew already that they weren't going to answer. While he, Dani, and Jazz had been distracted by the creature upstairs, something else had taken Jack and Maddie.

He watched his older sister frantically search the wreckage only to come up empty, her aqua eyes growing more and more worried with each passing moment. "I'm so sorry, Danny," Danielle apologized in a soft voice as she floated next to him looking horribly guilty. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"I know," he told her, voice hollow. "It's okay."

"No it's not," the girl protested. "I led a monster to your home and got your parents kidnapped."

"You didn't mean to," Jazz told Danielle, placing a shaking hand on her shoulder. "You weren't trying to hurt anyone. You were just scared and looking for help."

"Jazz is right," Danny agreed, pulling his clone in for a hug. "You didn't mean to." Danielle nodded reluctantly, still looking guilty. Her feet were brushing the floor as she slowly lost altitude. "I'm going to go ghost and look around in the Ghost Zone," he continued, turning towards Jazz. "Maybe I can find some sign of whatever took Mom and Dad."

"I'll come with you," Danielle volunteered, brightening a little.

"Okay," Danny agreed, knowing that Danielle was looking for some way to assuage her guilt.

"Take Fenton Phones," Jazz told them, gaze worried. "And stay in contact at all times. I don't want to lose you guys too."

"We promise to stay in contact," Danny reassured her. "And we'll leave at the first sign of danger."

"Okay," Jazz agreed, handing over the Fenton Phones. "Stay safe, both of you." Danny nodded and hugged her tightly before joining Danielle in floating upwards.

"Don't worry, Jazz," Danielle called as they flew through the portal into the Ghost Zone. "Everything is going to be just fine."

* * *

Hanna blinked open her eyes with a groan. Her head throbbed and her mouth felt sandy. Each breath of humid air made her headache worse. She slowly pushed herself upright, wobbling a little before managing to find her balance. Whatever power Dan had unleashed, it had been extremely dangerous. She was pretty certain that if he had been at full power, she probably wouldn't have survived it. Hanna carefully cupped her hands and let out a soft sigh of relief when water pooled in them. She drank slowly, sighing in relief as it soothed her scratchy throat. After managed to down several handfuls of water, the pounding in her head subsided. That was good. It meant she could concentrate on tracking down a possibly murderous ghost.

She tried to float off the ground but only made it a few inches before dropping. "Crap," she muttered, scowling. Apparently, she was back to being unable to fly. That wasn't so good. It was going to be a lot harder to find Dan if she couldn't fly above the ground. At least she knew where to look. Whatever power he'd used on her probably took a lot of energy. That meant he probably hadn't gotten very far. Hanna started walking. After a morning of flying, she'd forgotten how slow walking was. Dan had flung her pretty far away from the sight of their original argument which meant that she spent most the afternoon walking. At least it wasn't raining. Her legs ached by the time she reached the site of the altercation, reminding her that she'd been through a lot in the past day. Ending up in the Amazon Rainforest on accident was definitely no pleasure cruise. Once this mess was resolved, Hanna was definitely taking a vacation.

At least she had some luck. Dan had apparently passed out after throwing her several yards away into a tree. Hanna's lips twitched, trying to form a smile, as she took in the sight before her. The ghost who seemed to take pride in being terrifying was slumped in a crumpled, boneless heap at the foot of a tree, a Spider Monkey cuddled up in his lap while another one tugged curiously at his cape. A giggle escaped her and she lifted a hand to muffle it. It took a moment to control her giggles as the monkey investigating his cape was joined by a second, slightly smaller one. This one picked up a piece of the fabric and chewed on it before spitting it out and making a disgusted face. The giggles escaped her in a wave then and she struggled to get herself under control.

Once she finally managed to stop snickering, she swirled her fingers, gathering water around them before sending it crashing down on his head. Dan woke with a sputter, the monkey on his lap chattering angrily and launching itself away from the startled and angry ghost to clamber up a tree. Hanna watched, amused, as he pushed himself to his feet, hair slowly coming back to light. The two monkeys that had been investigating the cape shrieked angrily and clambered up the tree after the first one, waving their fists furiously at the ghost down below. Hanna barely bit down a giggle at the entire scene.

"Enjoying yourself?" Dan questioned, tone downright poisonous.

"Just a little," she replied with a smirk. The commented earned her a glare but, judging by how slowly he'd stood, he didn't have enough energy to start a fight. In some respects they were back to where they started, but this time at least Hanna knew which direction they needed to go. "I'm glad to see you're making friends," she added and he growled. This time, Hanna didn't feel any need to be afraid, despite the green glow surrounding his hands. "Are you going to start another fight or do you want to get out of here?" she asked, hands on her hips.

There was a moment of silence as he glared at her, red eyes blazing. Finally, just as she was beginning to feel uncomfortable, he said, "Walk or next time I'm almost back to full strength I'll turn you into a pile of ash." Hanna couldn't think of a reply to that so she just turned on her heel and marched away. She knew Dan was following her by the prickling feeling on the back of her neck but she refused to look back. Before the quickly escalated argument, they had been on almost civil terms but now the air was fully of distrustful tension. This was going to be a very long walk.


	7. Chapter 7

A tugging sensation pulling at something near the center of her chest was the first thing that caught Hanna's attention. She'd felt the sensation once before when a ghost had forcibly ripped his way out of the Ghost Zone. Wulf wasn't someone that she would consider trouble but that didn't mean whatever was ripping a hole in the fabric of the Ghost Zone wasn't bad news. There were all kinds in the Ghost Zone ranging from the minor problem the Box Ghost posed to someone as serious as the Fright Knight. With the way her luck had been running the past couple days, she doubted this ghost was good news.

As if to emphasize the thought, the tugging came again, this time accompanied by a frigid chill. The chill was new. It felt as if someone was trying to freeze her from the core outwards despite the fact that she was currently in human form. Hanna stopped mid step, allowing her eyes to drift shut as she stretching out a questing tendril of power. She had a feeling that she needed to find that portal. Ignoring the irritated muttered behind her, she stretched out what power she could spare, reaching for the familiar feeling of an open portal. This was one of the first things that Clockwork had taught her how to do and she'd had enough practice to be good at it.

After a moment she pulled the power back with a slim, satisfied smile and turned toward her left, walking quickly. She had felt the rip between the fabrics of the two realities the instant her power had touched it. It was larger than anything she'd seen Wulf accomplish before and the edges were ragged and dripping, almost like an open wound. Despite her satisfaction at quickly finding the hole, that made Hanna worried. She jumped over a damp tree root, glad it wasn't raining at the moment, and skirted a tree only to find herself face to face with the thing from Clockwork's lair. It was missing a small chunk of one arm but she doubted that made it any less dangerous.

Behind the creature was a gaping rip into the Ghost Zone. It seemed to be oozing drops of green ectoplasm from the edges that hissed when they fell to the ground. Hanna's attention was drawn away from the hole when the creature lashed out at her with sharp claws. She ducked, scowling when they made a whistling sound as they passed over her head. Her mind raced as she struggled to come up with some kind of plan. Dan had stopped it before by blowing it into hundreds of little pieces but she didn't have the energy to accomplish that. That meant she was going to have to improvise.

Hanna backed away from the thing, trying to get some space between herself and the thing, and bumped into Dan in the process. He'd been watching the creature and not her so they both stumbled a little, giving it time to lunge towards them. She reacted in the only way she could, gathering the water in the air and sending it rushing towards the creature. She had expected the water to maybe startle the creature or slow it down a little, but overall she'd assumed it wouldn't be very effective. She had been very wrong.

As soon as the water struck the creature it began to melt into a pile of goo. Violet eyes scowled at her as it dissolved, revealing what appeared to be a glowing glass ball filled with shimmering gold flecks of glitter. Ignoring the creature's damp sounds of protest, she reached out and carefully picked up the baseball sized sphere. The creature dissolved instantly into nothing more than what appeared to be black tar, eyes vanishing. Hanna frowned, confused and mildly worried, before turning her attention to the sphere in her hand. Where the gold glitter came in contact with the part of the sphere that was touching her hand, the skin tingled and stung like it had fallen asleep. She frowned and carefully rotated the sphere, watching as most the cold sparkles moved like there were nothing more than inanimate objects. A few of them stubbornly hung in midair inside the sphere and her eyes narrowed. What was this thing?

The stinging sensation grew stronger the more she moved the sphere about and she winced a little in pain. Whatever was contained inside the sphere clearly wasn't a happy camper. She stopped tilting it, wondering almost absently if Nocturne knew what this thing was, and tossed it toward Dan who caught it, looking a little surprised. "Any idea what that is?" she asked, watching him examine it. His eyes were narrowed as he glared at it as if demanding it give up all its secrets. After a moment, he tossed it back, reluctantly shaking his head. Hanna scowled at the sphere, ignoring the stinging of her hand as she turned her attention towards the still open rip between dimensions. "Oh well," she sighed. "At least we don't have to be in the rainforest anymore." That was the only plus side of this whole mess, especially considering the fact that she had missed both classes and work.

"Oh really?" Dan drawled, arching his eyebrows at her. "I never would have known if you hadn't told me."

"Very funny," Hanna replied dryly before gesturing towards the hole into the Ghost Zone. "After you."

"Don't trust me to follow?" he quipped as he headed for the hole.

"Not on your afterlife," Hanna retorted, folding her arms over her chest. He'd already tried to kill her once. She didn't intend to give him a chance to do it again. She stepped through right after him and transformed, stretching out a hand towards the rip. Using some of her own energy and some of the energy from the Ghost Zone itself, she sealed the rip, smiling in satisfaction. That was one problem taken care of. Granted, it was a small one but the accomplishment at least made her feel better. She turned away from where the hole had been to see Dan surveying his surroundings with a smirk.

It's been a while, hasn't it?" she said, watching him warily. The Ghost Zone was recharging his power just as much as it was recharging hers.

"You could say that," Dan replied, smirk never fading. "This place was a little cramped last time I was here though." Considering what Hanna knew about the future Dan had come from, she didn't doubt that. If he had really been as powerful as Clockwork had said, then most ghosts had probably gone back to the Ghost Zone in the vain hope that they could hide from him. Carefully she slipped the sphere into her bag, scanning her surroundings. They weren't far from Clockwork's domain. That was good. If Hanna could get them inside the place, she might be able to activate some of Clockwork's viewing portals so she could figure out what was going on.

"Come on," she told Dan, voice firm. "I have work to do and I am not about to let you wander around wreaking havoc while I work."

* * *

The Ghost Zone appeared unchanged despite all the strange things that had been happening lately. Danny and Danielle entered it at high speeds and headed directly towards Clockwork's lair, despite Danny knowing that the all-knowing ghost was missing. It was as good a place as any to start looking for the thing that had taken Jack and Maddie Fenton, especially since that was the first place Danny had encountered one of the creatures. They had almost arrived when they ran into Ember, the blue haired pop star floating just within view of Clockwork's domain. Danny and Danielle hesitated, Danny's hands glowing with energy as he prepared for a fight. Ember was always difficult to defeat, so pursing a fight with her in the Ghost Zone at this point wasn't a good idea but he wasn't going to assume that she was going to be friendly either.

As if sensing the tension from the pair behind her, she turned around to face them, snorting when she saw the green glow around Danny's hands. "Relax, dipstick," she told him. "I'm not here for a fight."

"Then why are you here?" Danielle asked, folding her arms over her chest and scowling at the flame haired older girl. "Because you don't seem like the type to hang out with Clockwork."

"A friend of mine went in to talk with him a couple days ago and hasn't come back out," Ember snapped, hands on her hips. "I just wanna make sure she's okay."

"I hate to break it to you, but I was in there a day ago and no one was inside," Danny told her. Ember's expression became uncharacteristically solemn at that.

"Maybe they stepped out for a minute," she said, trying to sound optimistic but only managing to come across as worried.

"Maybe," Dani agreed, giving the ghost a small smile. "Why don't we go check and see if they're back?"

"Sure thing babypop," Ember told the girl with a slim grin and headed for the door to Clockwork's domain.

"Come on," Danielle told Danny before following the former pop star. Danny sighed but followed his clone, admitting to himself that Ember would be a helpful alley in finding his parents if they could persuade her to help them.

The remains of the creature Danny had destroyed were no longer spread about but there was someone else in their place. Two someones actually. One was a young woman with blue hair trailing over one shoulder. Danny felt like he should recognize her but he couldn't understand why. The other one he did recognize, and he didn't like him one bit. Dan Phantom smirked at Danny as Ember asked, "Who's your new friend, babypop?"

"He's not my friend," the blue haired female said with a roll of her red eyes. "He just happened to get out of solitary confinement right before we accidentally ended up in the Amazon Rainforest."

"How?" Danny demanded, panic rushing through him. The only reason he'd beaten his psychotic future self was because he'd surprised Dan by developing his ghostly wail early. This time, there was no element of surprise to help him.

"Danny, Danny, Danny," Dan chided, smirk widening. "Did you really think that thermos would hold me forever?"

"Maybe not," Danny admitted, struggling to keep his worry out of his voice, "but I figured Clockwork would be enough to keep you contained."

"In case you hadn't noticed, Clockwork isn't here," Dan replied. "And I've already killed him once. I can easily accomplish that again if he comes back."

"What's going on?" Danielle asked as Ember let out a low, angry sounding growl.

"Clockwork, we demand to know where you have been," a new voice said, one of the Observers cutting into the chaos as the strangely familiar blue haired girl pressed a hand to her forehead.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Dan told the Observer, twisting his head around at an unnatural angle to show a smile with far too many teeth to the creatures. "But Clockwork isn't here."

"It's the abomination," the second Observer gasped and they both backed up a step.

"Abomination?" Ember asked.

"Danny," Danielle insisted, adding her voice to the growing noise. "What's going on?"

"Everybody just stop," the girl snarled, voice echoing off the high ceiling, and Danny felt the world around him suddenly go completely still.


	8. Chapter 8

Everything around Hanna froze, the world going completely still. She breathed out a sigh of relief and allowed her hands to fall to her sides. Then she caught sight of Dan. The ghost was still moving, not at all bothered by whatever power was holding the other one's frozen. "I have to admit, I'm impressed," he told her. "I didn't think you could stop time."

Hanna tucked trembling hands behind her back and bit down on her lip to keep from admitting that she hadn't known she could do it either. "You exist out of time, don't you?" she mused, keeping a close eye on his movements. One wrong move and she would bring all the power she had together in an attempt to stop him. "That's why you aren't frozen."

"Give the girl a hand," Dan drawled, flinging an arm out towards their unmoving audience. "She's figured it out." Hanna scowled at him and let out a soft breath, trying to figure out what she was going to do. She couldn't just leave everyone frozen here. Already she could feel the strain on her power that keeping time completely still was causing. This wasn't something Clockwork had taught her yet so she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep this up. She also wasn't sure she could safely restart time. She had no idea what she was doing right now and it made her stomach twist uncomfortably. "So what's next, sweetheart?" he added, definite challenge in his voice.

Hanna turned her gaze towards the Observant, curiosity making her stretch out a hand. As soon as she touched it, the Observant came to life. "I demand to know what is going on," it snapped and she scowled at it.

"I would like to know what exactly is going on too," she told it. "But we don't always get what we want." The Observant made a displeased sound but, like her mentor, Hanna had little patience for them. "Now please leave."

"I do not think-"

"Leave now," she growled. The Observant took a step back and huffed before turning on a heel and hurrying away. Hanna then turned her attention towards the others. Danny Phantom was easily recognizable from all the times Hanna had ended up watching him while Clockwork was arguing with the Observants. She also recognized Danielle Phantom. Clockwork had been keeping an eye on the girl as she traveled from state to state with no clear aim. Still, she hadn't seemed particularly malicious or at all loyal to Vlad Masters.

Ember, well she was going to be a problem. The former pop star would not simply float quietly in a corner and observe what was going on. She would want to participate in what was going to be a very interesting conversation. "Hey," Dan said from by her right shoulder. "Who's the girl?"

"Danielle Phantom," Hanna replied. "Goes by Dani with an i most the time. She's Danny's clone, courtesy of Vlad Masters."

"When did that happen?"

"Around three or four months after you ended up locked up in a thermos," Hanna said, unsure where he was going with this. There was a chance that he was simply genuinely curious about Danielle but she doubted it. This was the ghost who had destroyed most of the United States, and probably a good chunk of other continents as well.

"Why did Vlad think that was a good idea?" the psychotic ghost questioned, wrinkling his nose.

"No idea," Hanna muttered, taking a deep breath and then letting it out. It was time to unfreeze everyone before she accidentally caused some kind of permanent damage. She allowed her eyes to drift closed, trying to ignore the prickling of danger that having her back to Dan and her eyes closed caused. She focused, trying to cut the stream of power, and then opened her eyes. Nothing. Hana scowled and then closed her eyes and tried again. Her second attempt was not any more successful than her first. That wasn't good. The strain was beginning to get to her and the last thing she needed to do was pass out right now, although everyone would probably unfreeze if she did.

"Having trouble?" Dan asked, smirking, and she turned her scowl on him.

"I will put you back in the thermos," she threatened and he snorted.

"It's in a thousand pieces somewhere on this mess of a floor, so good luck."

"I doubt Danny came without one," she retorted, glancing pointedly towards the younger, heroic version of the ghost before her. "So shut up."

"Whatever you say," Dan replied, sounding more amused than threatened. Hanna resolved to stick him in a thermos as soon as possible, even as she turned back towards the frozen figures. Why couldn't she unfreeze them? She'd frozen them in time easily enough. That meant she should be able to unfreeze them, right? It sounded logical at least.

Hanna narrowed gleaming red eyes at the frozen figures and then her mouth dropped open. She could see gleaming, pulsing threads that coiled inside each person's chest. It took her a moment to realize that the snarled, tangled things were each one's personal timelines. Danny's and Danielle's were both gleaming gold mixed with ectoplasmic green while Ember's were completely green. The lines that showed what they had done were clear and concise, carefully coiled near the center of their chests. The ones further out, detailing things that hadn't yet happened but might, were a snarled mess. Nothing was set in stone, not until the decision were made at the right moments.

The pulsing light of the threads gave off the impression that they should be moving but weren't. Her mood brightened as she considered them, wondering if this might be the key to starting time again. Touching the Observant had worked to start time up around it again, so she could always go that route if necessary but with Dan around, it would be better to bring them back all at once. Then at least she'd have backup if he tried anything. That made the question of the hour how to restart the threads.

Carefully she reached out with a tendril of her power, splitting it apart to stretch towards each set of jumbled threads. She hesitated a moment then, uncertain of whether or not she was doing the right thing. She didn't want to accidentally set someone's future in stone or something. Very carefully she nudged the lines and then sighed in relief as they began swirling and twisting. Her vision of the timelines faded away as the three figures lurched into motion. "Okay," she said. "Before everyone starts shouting again, here's what's going on. Dan, who is Danny's evil self from an alternate timeline by the way, broke out of his thermos, Clockwork is missing, and there's these ooze monsters with some kind of spherical core inside them wandering around attacking certain beings."

"You forgot the Amazon," Dan commented dryly and she scowled at him.

"Thermos," she warned before turning back to the others. "Any questions?"

"Who are you?" Danny demanded.

At the same time Ember said, "The Amazon, babypop?"

"It was an accident," Hanna defended, folding her arms over her chest. The former pop start shook her head with an amused grin on her face. The young woman rolled her eyes and then turned her gaze towards Danny, who'd nudged a confused looking Danielle behind him. "The name's Hanna, Hanna Weiss, but Oracle works too. I'm supposed to replace Clockwork, should anything happen to him." She expected some kind of statement of denial from Danny but instead his gaze turned puzzled for a moment before he nodded.

"Will somebody please tell me what's going on?" Dani demanded from behind him and a little to the right, hands on her hips and a petulant frown on her face.

Hanna turned a smile on the girl. "What's got you confused?"

"You said he's Danny's future self," Danielle said, motioning towards Dan with one gloved hand. "And everyone keeps saying he's supposed to be in a thermos. I don't get it. What happened?"

"Come over here," Hanna said, beckoning the girl towards one of Clockwork's viewing portals. "I can show you." She turned toward Dan as Danielle approached and added, "You stay there and don't say a word." She didn't add a threat. Either he would listen and they'd be fine or he wouldn't and they'd have problems. Threatening him wasn't likely to change what would happen.

With Danielle next to her, Hanna reached out a bare hand to touch the edge of the viewing port, focusing. A moment later the events surrounding Dan and Danny began to play themselves out, leaving Danielle free to observe. Once reassured that the girl was absorbed in watching the scene and that she'd slipped enough power into it that it would keep playing without her touching it, Hanna stood to her full height and turned to face Danny. "You and I need to talk. Ember, mind keeping an eye on the convict?"

"Not a problem, babypop," Ember said blithely with a wide, shark like smile.

"Good," Hanna said, crossing to tuck her arm through Danny's. "Come on then. We have things to discuss."

* * *

Danny warily followed the young woman deeper in Clockwork's home, the pair of them ascending a set of stairs. He found himself in what appeared to be some kind of observatory. Hanna Weiss leaned against the edge, not at all bothered by the possible impending drop behind her. "Something happened to bring you here," she said. "Something to do with your parents."

"Yes," he admitted. "One of the ooze monsters took them while Danielle and I were busy defeating another one." Hanna frowned pensively and turned her gaze upwards.

"I don't see possibilities as well as Clockwork, but I can catch snippets when I focus," she said after a moment. "And what I'm seeing isn't promising."

"Do you see my parents?" Danny asked immediately but she shook her head.

"Maybe I could use one of the viewing portals downstairs to find them," she said. "But I doubt they'll be harmed." Then she reached into her bag and pulled out a clear sphere when shimmering gold particles inside. "The creatures dissolve in water," she informed him. "I managed to destroy one and this was what inside it." She handed it over and Danny turned it about in his hands, feeling the slight sting where the gold particles came in contact with the glass touching his hand.

"What is it?" he asked and she shrugged.

"Honestly I was hoping you might know," Hanna told him.

"My parents might be able to find out," Danny said. "But ghost hunting wasn't really my thing until the accident that made me half ghost. I'm learning now, but slowly."

"Okay," Hanna said breathing out. "If we head back down I can try and track down your parents via one of the viewing portals. Then you and Danielle can rescue them."

"What about you? And Dan?"

"Do you have a thermos?" Hanna asked, eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Danielle has one."

"Good," she told him. "I'll put Dan in the thermos. It won't hold him permanently but it will keep him out of our way for the time being. As for me, I'm going to talk to Nocturne. Maybe he'll know what that thing is."

"Sounds like a plan," Danny said and she grinned at him, taking the sphere when he offered it. She tucked it away and they walked down the stairs together. Danny wasn't entirely certain he could trust her but she was the only chance he had right now to find his parents. Furthermore, she was planning on putting Dan in a thermos. That was one big problem he wouldn't have to deal with. If Hanna became a problem later, then he would deal with it. Until then, he had decided to trust her.


	9. Chapter 9

Getting Dan Phantom into a Fenton Thermos was going to be easier said than done. Hanna knew this and was already searching for a solution to her problem as she and Danny descended from the tower to the main floor of Clockwork's domain. She knew that the last time Dan had been locked up, he'd been severely weakened by the effects of Danny's ghostly wail. This time they didn't have that advantage, but Dan was still weakened from their little battle when they'd still been stuck in the Amazon. Hopefully that would work to her advantage.

The various people and ghosts she and Danny had left behind on the main floor of Clockwork's home were spread out, varied expressions turned in the direction of the two halfas when they reached the bottom of the stairs. Dan was leaning against a column, smirking in their direction like he knew something they didn't. The expression made Hanna's skin crawl, as if there was a tiny bug creeping across it. She looked away, directing her attention towards Ember who was glancing at her manicured nails as if they were the only thing of importance. The former rock star was humming a haunting sounding tune under her breath and she'd casually positioned herself between Dani and Dan.

The youngest halfa was sitting with her back pointedly towards the viewing portal that was playing Dan Phantom's crimes for what was probably the second or third time, eyes stony and arms folded over her chest. She brightened some when she caught sight of Danny but Hanna guessed from the way the arms stayed folded over the younger girl's chest that Dani wasn't happy about not being told of Dan's existence. Hanna resolved to stay out of that particular mess, but she did cross the room to join Dani, knowing she'd need to get the Fenton Thermos from the younger halfa in order to lock the current problem away. "Did that answer your questions?" she inquired and Dani nodded as Hanna reached a hand around the girl to shut down the portal.

Danny joined them and the girl turned her attention towards him, demanding "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"When was I supposed to tell you?" was Danny's reply. "The first time I met you, you were trying to destroy me and the next time you were destabilizing and Valerie was trying to kill us both."

"Okay," Dani admitted. "Fair point. But I feel like this is something I should have been warned about."

"Can we maybe talk about this later," Danny pressed, sounding unwilling to continue the building argument. "Like when my parents haven't been kidnapped by ooze monsters?"

"Fine," Dani said and Hanna leaned close to the girl, hoping Dan was far enough away not to hear what she was going to say.

"I need your Fenton Thermos," she breathed out, voice barely a whisper. Dani gave her a questioning look and Hanna jerked her head slightly towards Dan, adding, "Trust me."

The younger girl glanced questioningly at Danny, who nodded, and then passed over the Fenton Thermos. Hanna rose then and turned to face Ember who asked, "What's next babypop?"

"I've got a little searching to do," Hanna replied with a shrug. "And then I'm going to pay a visit to Nocturne."

"Count me out," came the former rocker's reply. "That ghost gives me the creeps." Then she turned to flash a fierce grin at Danny and asked, "Think I can tag along with you?"

"Uh, yeah," Danny replied awkwardly, glancing at Hanna as if looking for help. "Sure, I guess." Hanna shrugged at him, knowing better than to argue with Ember once the ghost had an idea in her mind. Instead she reached out her free hand, the one that wasn't hanging behind her back holding on to the thermos, to activate another viewing portal. She could feel Dan's eyes on her, watching her every move like a cat stalking a particularly craft mouse, but she did her best to ignore the crawling feeling it gave her, focusing instead of attempt to find Jack and Maddie Fenton.

The viewing portal fizzed and hissed unhappily at her, as if protesting against the task she'd set out the perform, but after a minute shadows began to come into view. At first they refused to coalesce into more than shifting blobs, but eventually one of the ooze monsters appeared. It had shifted into some sort of octopus form so it could hold both Fentons and still move along the ground of what looked like a massive cavern. Jack Fenton was unconscious, a large welt on his head proof that he'd been fighting the creature. Maddie was still awake, although judging by the glassy look in her eyes she wasn't entirely alert. Still she struggled against the creature's restraining hold, trying to break free.

"Where is that?" Danny asked.

"I have no idea," Hanna replied and then let out a startled sound when the picture vanished. "No, no, no," she cried, forgetting she was holding on to the thermos and bringing both hands to touch the edge of the viewing portal. The thermos clinked on the metal exterior but she ignored it, trying to bring the image back. "Come back," she pleaded. "Please come back." No such luck. Instead what Hanna got was a low growl that had her head turning warily towards Dan.

"What exactly do you plan on doing with that?" the murderous ghost demanded and Hanna felt as if ice was sliding down her spine. Her mouth went dry and his red eyes narrowed. "You weren't planning on trying to trap me in that, were you?"

From the corner of her eye, Hanna saw Danny's hands begin to glow, Dani rising up to float next to him. "No," she murmured. "Get out and find your parents."

"He'll kill you," Danny hissed in protest but Hanna was already shaking her head.

"No, I don't think he will," she replied. "But even if he does, it doesn't matter right now. If we can't find your parents, we'll never be able to figure out how to defeat this thing." Danny nodded, reluctantly, and grabbed Dani's hand, pulling the younger halfa away. Ember gave Hanna a sardonic looking wave before racing after him, leaving Hanna to turn and face an angry, psychotic ghost all by herself.

* * *

Even though Danny knew what Hanna had told him made sense, he hated feeling like he was running away. He'd worked hard to be a hero, and he hated leaving someone else to try to take down what was essentially his problem. It had been Danny's own foolishness that had led to the creation of Dan Phantom, so it stood to reason that it should have been Danny facing down his evil formerly future self to put Dan back into a thermos, not Hanna.

Danny was shaken from his thoughts by Dani demanded, "Where are we even going?" The question jerked Danny to a sudden stop as he realized he didn't know the answer. The image Hanna had conjured up for him was of some sort of cave, but it wasn't anything he'd seen in the Ghost Zone before. The creature had likely gotten their via the Ghost Zone because the Fenton Portal had been active but Danny had no clue where the ooze monster had gone from there.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I mean, I know the thing came into the Ghost Zone with Mom and Dad, but I'm not sure where it took them from here."

"Ask around," Ember suggested in a tone that implied she thought Danny was being an idiot. "I mean, you've got some friends in the Ghost Zone. Go ask them if they saw anything unusual."

"Thanks," Danny told her after a moment of embarrassed silence, glad to have a plan, and she snickered.

"Are you still coming with us?" Dani demanded from Danny's side, sliding her hand free from Danny's grip.

"Why wouldn't I be?" was Ember's curious response, the former music star arching her eyebrows at the young halfa.

"Your friend's in there fighting Dan Phantom," was Dani's reply. "Aren't you going to help her?"

"Hanna can take care of herself," Ember told Dani with a shrug. "Besides, she wouldn't be happy if I tried to fight her battles for her. Now are we gonna go find the Fenton parents or not?"

"Yeah, we're going," Danny told his former enemy, exasperated. He glanced around, taking note of his surroundings before heading towards Frostbite's domain. Hopefully the ghost who'd taught him to control his ice core would have some idea of where the creature had taken his parents.


	10. Chapter 10

Hanna had a long mental list of things she'd done that she probably shouldn't have, and this particular incident was probably going to top the list. Slowly she opened her hand and let the thermos clatter to the ground, the others all but fleeing Clockwork's domain. Hanna didn't particularly blame them. Compared to Dan she was tiny, and he looked awfully ticked off by what he was probably taking as a betrayal. This was not going to end well, she just knew it.

"Can we, uh, talk about this?" she tried, pulling out her best sheepish smile in the vain hope that it would cut through the growing tension. No such luck.

Dan's expression became, if possible, darker than it had been before as he growled out, "You want to talk about this? Fine. Let's talk about how you were planning to lock me away in a Fenton Thermos, again."

"Umm, it was only going to be temporary?" she offered, swallowing hard and struggling to regain her equilibrium. Dan had been steadily regaining his power and, although he had a lot more power to regain than her, he also recharged it at a faster rate. That meant the results of what was beginning to look like an inevitable fight were not going to be in her favor. At best, she was probably going to end up locked up in the thermos instead of Dan. At worst, she'd be eliminated from the time stream entirely and, with Clockwork dead, Dan would be free to take whatever kind of vengeance he saw fit. She couldn't allow that to happen.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to be trapped in one of those for years?" Dan demanded, advancing on her. "What it's like to watch the same walls as the hours drag by?"

Hanna forced herself to stand her ground, folding her arms defensively over her chest, and snapped, "If you weren't such a psychopath, you wouldn't have that problem!"

"My family was murdered," Dan snarled. "Was I supposed to go around sowing peace in the world?"

"My family's dead too, and you don't see me turning into a crazed mass murderer because of it," Hanna snarled back. "So don't give me that 'Woe is me' crap. You made a choice and now you've got to live with the consequences." In all honesty, she'd never felt much sympathy for Dan Phantom. When Clockwork had shown her exactly what had happened, she'd been horrified. What had happened to the Fentons, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley had been awful, but it was the choices afterwards that had made her sick. She understood the kind of pain a person would be in from the deaths of everyone she cared for, but she also understood that Dan had made deliberate decisions that had set him on the horrific path he'd gone down. She wasn't about to let him get away with pitying himself because of decisions he had made.

He lunged for her, obviously out of words, and Hanna was forced to dive away from the thermos to avoid being tackled across the room. Been there, done that. It wasn't an experience she was eager to repeat. She rolled smoothly to her feet and whirled around so she was facing him again. There wasn't much water, by nature, in the Ghost Zone. A little of it hung around, most of it in Frostbite's domain, but ghost's in general saw little use for water. There was some in the natural environment, and that was the end of it. Now Hanna found herself hoping that there was enough water lurking around to give her a little bit of an advantage.

She cringed away from an ectoplasm blast and, with a swirl of her fingers, sent a clumsy looking ball of water crashing into him. Her first thought was that her aim was terrible. Her second, as the wobbly water projectile hit his shoulder and barely rocked back, was that she was in major trouble. Ditching the water, Hanna rose over another strike, mind whirring in an attempt to figure out how she was going to get the thermos back. She was going to need it.

Hanna dodged another shot of ectoplasm and returned one of her own, silently resolving to find someone in the Ghost Zone to teach her fighting techniques. Worse came to worse, she could probably threaten Walker into teaching her a few things. Honestly, at the moment she didn't much care who was doing the teaching. She was sure she'd end up better off than she was now. She dodged another ectoplasm blast and decided that she was very glad Dan had decided to pull out his ghostly wail. There were plenty of columns for her to hit if he did, and she didn't want to add that to her steadily growing list of unpleasant things that had happened in the past few days.

Dan sent yet another blast that Hanna somehow flipped over. She landed smoothly on the ground, coiling the available water around her, focusing on keeping it under control. She'd used her abilities with water more in the last few days than she had in months but if she was improving at all, it wasn't showing. Her grip on it remained tenuous at best. Even now, as it gathered around her in thin streams, it threatened to break free and drop to the ground. Gritting her teeth in an effort to hold everything she had gathered, she turned her head to meet Dan's eyes. "What, no smart comment?" he quipped. "I'm disappointed."

"Believe it or not," Hanna replied, manipulating the water around her hips to send it straight into his chest, this time with enough force to send him stumbling backwards a few steps. "I don't really care." She moved forward, pressing what little advantage she had. He rolled away from the bolt of ectoplasm she unleashed but his movement took him away from the Fenton Thermos. Good. Hanna grinned, more a satisfied baring of teeth than an actual sign of happiness, and send several more his direction. Her aim wasn't exceptionally good, but it was enough to have him more focused on dodging than the fact that she'd reached the thermos.

One of her bolts actually managed to clip him and Hanna took advantage of his shock to grab the thermos, fingers scrambling to remove the lid. The vortex of blue light grabbed him probably before he'd actually realized what she was doing, sucking him in. Hanna sealed the thermos, breathing out a sigh of relief even as it rattled ominously in her hands. "I'm sorry," she said, hands trembling a little as a wide grin crossed her face. "But we already have enough trouble running around without you." Then she placed the thermos carefully on the ground and all but ran out of Clockwork's domain, heading towards where Nocturne usually resided.

* * *

Far Frozen was about as far out in the Ghost Zone as you could get. Danny'd only been there a couple times, so he'd been afraid that he'd get lost, but somehow he'd led the little group in the correct direction. Frostbite had been waiting for them when they'd arrived, a grim look on his face. Danny had introduced Dani and Ember, who'd tried to look unimpressed but hadn't quite managed it, and Frostbite had greeted them cordially before insisting that he speak to Danny alone Now the two of them stood in the center of an ice cave, the domed top decorated with what looked like a thousand snowflakes. Danny found himself staring upwards in silent awe, wondering at the skill it had taken to design the ceiling.

"I suspected you would come to visit me," Frostbite informed him. "The entire Ghost Zone has been in upheaval recently, and it is only growing worse."

"Do you know what's going on?" Danny asked curiously. He'd come to ask if Frostbite had seen his parents or the ooze monster that had taken them, but figuring out what exactly was happening was important too.

"Long ago, when the Ghost Zone was further separated from the human world, there were more than just ghosts lurking here," Frostbite told him, tone solemn. "We lived in harmony for a time but, like most places in the world where ethic differences abound, the peace was not to last. The creatures that had lived with us and protected us from human interference grew resentful of what they saw as our easy life, and perhaps they were correct. They turned on us and, in the end, it took the combined effort of Pariah Dark, Nocturne, and Clockwork to lock them away."

"Are you telling me that those...ooze monsters were once some sort of ghost guardians?" Danny demanded incredulously.

"They were," Frostbite confirmed. "But they didn't always appear that way. Their time locked away has twisted them and changed them from their original form. Their appearance now is little more than a mockery of what they once were."

"What were they?" Danny questioned. The domed roof above them shivered and both looked up to see one of the ooze monster's clinging to the roof, almost as if it had been summoned by the sheer mention of its kind.

"They have gone by many names over the centuries, known and feared by humans and animals alike," was Frostbite's response. "But we do not have time to cover their history. You came to me for a reason, what was it?"

"My parents were taken by one of those things," Danny told Frostbite, words coming out in a worried rush as he kept his eyes fixed on the creature on the roof. "Do you know where they were taken?"

"Yes," was Frostbite's simple response. "I do."


	11. Chapter 11

It had been a while since Hanna had visited Nocturne's domain, and she was reminded of why she didn't go there often every time she decided to make the trek from Clockwork's home to the dream ghost's. Nocturne didn't appreciate visitors so his home was as far away from other ghosts as possible. That meant it took an almost unreasonable amount of effort to actually reach his home. The sights of his domain, and the occasional wise insight he decided to offer, did make the infrequent treks to his home worth it.

Hanna landed softly on grass that was a shade of green that almost could have been called mint but wasn't a shade of mint green found in nature. Wildflowers not found anywhere else were scattered across the field in brilliant colors she never could find words to describe. Hanna took a moment to breathe in and then let out a little sigh, tension draining from her muscles. Nocturne's home had always been one of her safe havens. She smiled as plant life hissed around her legs, making her way deeper into the meadow. Nocturne's domain was large, often growing to accommodate more of the beautiful and unnatural wildlife the ancient ghost seemed to collect, so she could be walking for a while. The thought did little to discourage her. No one stepped into Nocturne's home without him knowing and the ghost did not need to guess at a being's mental state. She would find him when they were both ready to speak.

Hanna felt the knot of tension between her shoulders loosen. It wasn't going to just fade away, not after the week she'd had this far, but it was better than nothing. The flowers at her feet, a shadow of purple that was almost lavender, but not quite, seemed to part and she found herself at the edge of a dark forest. That was new. Normally Nocturne's home was an endless meadow, a place of refuge rather than shadows and darkness. That he would choose to so drastically change the appearance of part of his home was worrisome. Some of the tension flowed back into place as Hanna stepped into the forest, palms held loose and open at her sides. The last thing she wanted to do was provoke Nocturne, and the atmosphere seemed to say that the slightest sign of hostility would be instantly destroyed.

The colors here felt muted, as if someone had passed a dark lens over them. Unlike the vivid, unnatural beauty of the meadow, the forest felt as if it was a place where nightmares grew. Each step forward was a fight, like walking through molasses, and the trees seemed to shift closer to her in an attempt to keep her out. It didn't take long for Hanna's legs to begin to ache, muscles begging for her to give up the fight. Even ghosts grew tired, if they expended enough effort, and Hanna had already had an extremely long day. She stopped sinking down to the loam of the forest floor with a heavy sigh. Pausing here felt horribly like defeat, but Hanna was exhausted by all the effort she had expended and she doubted that she was any closer to Nocturne than when she had begun. Maybe she shouldn't have come here.

She turned that thought around in her mind, pondering it. Would it have been better to search for her answers elsewhere? Nocturne was not the only ancient ghost within the confines of the Ghost Zone. While most of the others weren't exactly friendly, their domains were protected by far more than a simple meadow. Asking one of those other ghosts might have been a wiser choice in the long run. The ore protection that a ghost meant that they were more likely survive an attack from one of those strange creatures. By coming here, Hanna was putting Nocturne at risk. Still, she had come this far. She might as well ask her questions and warn Nocturne of the coming danger.

Mind made up, Hanna stood and pressed onward, determined. Something about the forest had changed since she had paused to rest, the atmosphere around her feeling lighter. This time she actually felt as if she were making some sort of progress. The forest seemed to clear ahead of her, revealing a clearing. The grass there was brighter, almost at the same vividness as the grass in the meadow, and lying in the center was a single star covered individual. Hanna broke into a run, no longer caring whether branches scratched at her face and skin. Her single focus was on finding out whether or not Nocturne was still alive.

Logically she knew that he had to be. A ghost's home within the Ghost Zone began to fade the very moment they were destroyed. Within a matter of a couple hours, the realm would be completely gone, eaten up by the very fabric of this reality. That Nocturne's home still existed in one piece was a sure sign that he was still alive, but after the events of the last few days Hanna felt sure of nothing. She sank to her knees and reached out a shaking hand to brush Nocturne's shoulder. The ghostly chill that emanated from him was enough to sweep a wave of relief through her. He was still alive. That brought up the nerve wracking question, what had happened?

The only creatures strong enough to take out Nocturne were a few of the older ghosts that rarely left their domains, or were locked inside them in Pariah Dark's case. The ooze creatures might be be able to overwhelm the old ghost, but Hanna suspected they would have made more of a mess. Furthermore, she sincerely doubted that Nocturne had simply fallen over, which meant she was dealing with something else. Potentially something far more dangerous than the ooze monsters. Hanna had a very bad feeling about this.

* * *

Dan was not particularly surprised about his current predicament. He wasn't happy about it, but he wasn't really surprised. His pathetic past self, his little team of helpers, and even the little blonde herself had looked at him like he was a threat, and he'd known it was only a matter of time before someone tried to lock him up. What he hadn't anticipated was the attempt actually being successful. That was a little impressive. Hanna was proving to be a nuisance to any plans he might have, and now he had to bust out of a Fenton Thermos again. That hadn't been part of his grand plan, but Dan could be flexible. He'd be out in no time and back on track to taking control of the Ghost Zone.

The thermos rattled on the floor as Dan unleashed his power again, banging against the sides. Previously it had taken him an incredible amount of time to break free of the thermos, considering that he had been told the weak points by the very people that designed it. Clockwork had been around to counter his every move then, but this time he was out of commission. That meant that all Dan needed to do was dent the right spot and then keep hitting it until it shattered. Easy as pie. Another hit made the thermos groan ominously. Dan grinned widely and kept going.

The Fenton Thermos shattered within eight hits and Dan stretched, scanning his surroundings. Clockwork's domain was just as it had been before he'd been sucked up, a sure sign that wherever the time altering ghost was, he was still alive. That wasn't exactly good news, but it was better than finding out he'd been eaten up by the rest of the ghost zone while temporarily trapped inside the thermos. Escaping only to find out that he'd been destroyed would have been terribly inconvenient.

Since he was still in one piece, though considerably weaker than he would have liked to have been, Dan needed to decide what to do next. When he'd first been freed from his pesky human morals, and most of his emotions, his focus had been on revenge. His parents, sister, Tucker, and Sam had been killed in a shady explosion and someone had to know something about it. The more he'd searched for answers, the more distant Dan had become from the hopeful, honorable child he'd once been. He'd thought, initially, that once he'd killed what was left of his mourning human self that finding answers would be simple. Instead Dan had found himself ripping the world apart in an effort to figure out why everyone he cared about was dead.

His quest hadn't ended the way he'd expected it to, and Dan was smart enough to realize that he needed an actual plan this time. No running headlong into things, especially not with those strange creatures wandering around. They were proving to be more annoying than Hanna, and harder to defeat too. That potential problem aside, there was still the matter of Clockwork. If the old ghost came back from wherever the creatures had locked him up then Dan's plan would fall to pieces. That meant he needed to eliminate Clockwork, again.

Hanna he wasn't so worried about. For as much as nuisance as she was proving to be, she still had a weak grasp on her powers. Unlike Clockwork, she wouldn't prove to be much of a challenge. He could probably eliminate her now, but he needed someone to serve as a distraction for the ooze creatures. So far, she was doing an effective job, and naive little Danny Phantom was willing to help her track down the source of the creatures. Dan would hang around with them long enough to regain his full range of powers and learn how to defeat the creatures. Then he'd work on eliminating the competition. Mind made up, Dan headed out of Clockwork's home in search of his former traveling companion.


	12. Chapter 12

_Author's Note:_ Much to the relief of my awesome beta reader (and equally awesome friend) _snowcloud8_, (and to the relief of those of you still waiting for another chapter) this story is not dead. I now have a plan for where I want it to go, but updates may take a while because I have half a dozen other stories I am also trying to finish and no pre-written chapters for this that I simply have to post. That being said, thank you to anyone still hanging around to see how this story ends! I really appreciate your patience!

* * *

Nocturne's realm was as flowery and unnatural looking as it had been last time he'd been free. Dan hovered over the wildflower field and considered blasting some of the foliage out of sheer spite. Ultimately, he decided against it. The last thing he wanted to do was alert anyone to his presence before he wanted them to know that he was there. Instead he flew low through the flowers, hoping that Nocturne didn't notice anything amiss. Some of his energy had been sapped from breaking out of a Fenton Thermos for the second time in his existence, and he didn't want to duke it out in the dream master's territory. Nocturne knew his domain inside and out, which meant that he would have the advantage, especially considering Dan's weakened state. That battle could wait until a day when Dan had all his powers back to full strength.

Hanna had said that she was going to talk to Nocturne before they'd fought and she'd managed to shut him up inside a Fenton Thermos. Dan doubted that he'd been locked away long enough for her to finish her discussion with the ancient ghost. Still, he found himself wondering whether or not she'd gotten her answers more quickly than he thought she would because Nocturne's domain was awfully quiet. Normally there were several sleepwalkers wandering about, keeping unwanted visitors out of Nocturne's so called field of dreams. It wasn't uncommon to run into the green minion ghosts in hordes the deeper one traveled into the field. Instead, Dan was seeing trees.

Dan hovered just outside the trees, frowning. He didn't remember there being a forest in Nocturne's domain. Instead he recalled rolling hills that flattened out into a grassy plain that had appeared to go on forever. If the lack of sleepwalkers wasn't an obvious sign that something was wrong, the startling appearance of a forest where there had once been grassy hills was practically screaming that Nocturne was worried about being attacked. Dan would be flattered if he thought that the defensive forest was because of him, but he doubted that Hanna had even told the ancient ghost that Dan was free. That meant these defenses were probably to keep out the ooze creatures that were destroyed so easily by water, though he wasn't certain how a bunch of trees were going to serve as any kind of a defense. Still, Nocturne's constructs tended to look deceptively harmless. His sleepwalkers were a prime example of that. They looked like they were nothing more than walking green pillows but they could easily overwhelm a ghost.

He floated forward, not entirely surprised when the trees suddenly sprouted thorns as long and as thick as his arm. Normally Dan wouldn't have worried about the thorns, floating by or through them, but this was Nocturne's domain and the ghost had spent centuries experimenting when he'd created his domain. Likely any defenses built into Nocturne's home would be potentially lethal for intruding enemies. Dan backed up a little and the thorns furthest away from him vanished. He scowled at the thorns and tried to figure out what his next step was. He could stick around and wait for Hanna to emerge from Nocturne's home, but that meant he'd have to continually circle the entirety of the forest and meadows. Hanna could easily slip out when he wasn't looking her direction and he'd be stuck wandering around the practically limitless ghost zone looking for her, which wasn't really how he wanted to spent the rest of his afterlife. That left him one option that might draw his intended prey to him. Dan closed his eyes, gathered his strength, and then let loose with his ghostly wail.

Trees shivered, dropping leaves and branches in the force of his attack. Flower petals fluttered through Nocturne's sky for a moment before drifting into bent over grass. For a moment, Dan thought that he might have actually cleared a path for him. He floated forward, only for thorns to appear by the dozen, just as thick as they had been before. Dan growled in frustration just as a figure with pale blue hair floated forward. "Well," Hanna Weiss said, looking not at all surprised to see him. "That didn't take long."

"I've broken out of one of those thermoses once before," Dan replied. "Doing it a second time was easy."

"Yes, and I'm sure that it had nothing to do with Clockwork's absence."

"Nothing at all," was Dan's dismissive response. "I could have escaped even with that fool trying his best to contain me." The statement was nothing more than arrogant bluster and, judging by Hanna's dismissive snort, she knew it.

"Since you're here, I may as well ask you what you know about reviving unconscious ghosts," she said, tone calm as if she hadn't just dropped a metaphorical bombshell on top of him.

"Which ghost has your blundering knocked unconscious?" Dan taunted, buying himself some time. He didn't actually have much experience with unconscious ghosts. Mostly he killed them when they got in his way and kept his plan moving forward.

"He was this way when I got here," Hanna replied with a scowl, folding slim arms over her chest. The trees and bushes around her seemed to bristle defensively, as if backing up her claim. Dan scanned the plants and then realized abruptly that he knew exactly what ghost had been knocked unconscious. It didn't bode well for the rest of the inhabitants of the Ghost Zone if a ghost as ancient as Nocturne had been left insensible after the ooze monsters attacked him.

"Help me through his defenses and I'll see if I can help you," he told her, uncharacteristically serious, and after a moment of studying him, Hanna nodded.

"Alright. But if you try anything funny, I'll make you wish you'd stayed inside the thermos."

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Dan asked, skeptical.

"I don't know yet," Hanna admitted with a startlingly innocent smile. "But I'm creative, so I'll come up with something."

* * *

Frostbite hadn't been kidding when he'd told Danny that his parents were being held captive in the absolute center of the Ghost Zone. "It won't be easy to get there," Frostbite had warned. "The door itself is heavily guarded in order to prevent these creatures from escaping."

"It might not be so heavily guarded anymore," Ember had called from where she'd been watching the ooze monster like a hawk. "Not with these things spilling out all over the place like oil out of a leaky pipe."

"They may have found another way to escape," had come the chilly reply and Danny had actually flown over and clapped his hand over an irritated looking Ember's mouth so that she couldn't respond.

"Thank you for you help," he'd said, as cheerfully as he could manage, and Frostbite's countenance had softened as he'd turned his attention away from Ember.

"We really appreciate it," Dani had chimed in, smiling brightly at the ghost, and Frostbite had smiled.

"I am always glad to provide any help I can to you and your friends," Frostbite had informed Danny, his anger already vanishing.

They had departed from Far Frozen without much trouble, but now Danny found himself wishing that they had been held up just a little long so that Hanna would be able to join them. It would have been nice to have even a little more help considering what lay before them. The door that Frostbite had directed them to did appear to be in the exact center of the ever changing Ghost Zone. It was a heavy object that looked like it was made of solid steel, and the only way to see it was if you were hovering directly above it. Unlike the other doors in the Ghost Zone, which were easiest to see if you traveled towards them from in front or behind them, this one was only visible if you came at it from the area above it. It looked like it was located at the very bottom of the Ghost Zone, the only ending to the entire place that Danny had ever seen.

The steel door had been chained shut, but something had burst straight through the center of the door, tear chains like they were damp paper and leaving a gaping wound in the material of the door. There were two piles of ectoplasm next to the door, which seemed to be all that was left of the guards who'd kept curious visitors away, and traces of the same black ooze that the monsters who'd taken his parents were composed of. "Are we really going in there?" Dani asked, voice full of the same trepidation that Danny was feeling.

"Sure thing, babypop," Ember chirped, voice full of false cheer. "That is, unless you want to leave little Danny Fenton's parents at the mercy of those nasty ooze monsters."

"I didn't mean it like that," Dani retorted indignantly, scowling at the blue haired rockstar. "I just don't think that looks like a very fun place to spend your afternoon."

"You're definitely right about that," Ember babbled and Danny realized abruptly that she was looking a little pale. "I definitely would not want to waste one second of my fabulous afterlife down there."

"I'm not exactly looking forward to the trip either," Danny admitted. "But I have to go down there if I want to save my parents."

"So we're really doing this then," Dani said, voice small and wavering. She looked like she'd forgotten all about her earlier irritation. She floated closer to the ruined door, arms wrapped protectively around her stomach. "We're really going down there."

"Yeah, we are," Danny said before glancing over at Ember. "Are you coming?"

Ember glanced between Danny and the door before letting out a resigned sigh. "Alright," she said, floating reluctantly downwards towards the door. "I'm in. Let's do this."


	13. Chapter 13

Nocturne woke to the sound of arguing. "...can't even revive a ghost then what good are you?" a familiar female voice was demanding, volume rising with every word.

"Listen here, sweetheart," a gruff male voice responded. "I'm an expert in _killing_ ghosts, not reviving them from unconsciousness."

"Yeah, yeah, your powers of destruction are truly unparalleled," the female voice drawled, sounding completely uninterested. "I understand that. What I don't understand is why you can't do anything useful."

"Killing threats is useful," came the growled response, which earned the male a derisive snort.

"_Right._ Sure," the female replied and Nocturne finally placed the voice. He opened his eyes and turned his head slightly, taking in the sight of Hanna Weiss. The halfa was going toe to toe with an very irritated looking Dan Phantom, or rather, she was standing with her arms folded over her chest while Dan floated in front of her, teeth bared in a furious snarl. Nocturne groaned, trying to sit up, and Hanna was at his side in an instant, easing him into a sitting position with gentle hands. "Nocturne, are you okay?" she said, eyes concerned.

"I will be fine," the star spangled ghost replied, waving off her concern. He eyed Dan Phantom with no small amount of trepidation as he tried to remember the exact events that had left him lying on the ground inside his own realm. His mind felt scrambled, but that was probably because it had been a long time since he'd been rendered unconscious. The last time he'd been badly wounded enough to render him unconscious was during the battle to lock the Pariah Dark away in his coffin. Any kind of physical combat wasn't Nocturne's specialty and he had been trying to distract the Fright Knight. It hadn't been the best day of his long existence and he'd spent a long time building his power back up, added some by his last foray into the human world. Of course, Danny Phantom had ruined that particular plan, but Nocturne had managed to funnel enough power from dreaming people into his little section of the Ghost Zone to keep it fueled independently of his own power for a while.

"Isn't Dan Phantom supposed to be locked away in a Fenton Thermos?" Nocturne questioned and Dan scowled at him in response.

"Yes," Hanna admitted. "But that hasn't worked out very well for anyone since Clockwork was taken, probably by the same things that attacked you."

"I sincerely doubt that," Nocturne replied, flowing smoothly upright as his realm began to feed him some of its power. It was also giving him its impressions of what had happened to him, aiding his own, scrambled memory as he struggled to recall precisely what had happened. Nocturne's entire realm was sentient, to a certain extent, if only because his Sleepwalkers became part of the landscape when they were not active. It was part of the reason his part of the Ghost Zone was so expansive. It had been made with a combination of his own power and of the Sleepwalkers, who didn't mind being absorbed into the scenery when they hibernated.

Nocturne recalled seeing a few oozing bodies of the former Guardians testing the boundaries of his meadow. He had known better than to send a few of the Sleepwalkers to deal with the once again freed trouble. The Sleepwalkers were capable warriors in their own right, but the former Guardians would shred the weaker ghost without any trouble. Instead, Nocturne had gone to deal with the rabble himself, only to discover that it had been an ambush. From what he could glean from the impressions his realm was feeding him, the Sleepwalkers had risen en mass and driven off the attackers before placing Nocturne's unconscious form in the forested part of his realm, which had the most built in protections.

"I went to investigate a disturbance at the borders of my home," Nocturne informed Clockwork's concerned apprentice.

"Let me guess," Dan Phantom interrupted. "It was those pesky little ooze creatures that managed to eliminate Clockwork for me."

"I highly doubt that they would have managed to destroy Clockwork," Nocturne replied coldly, the position of stars on his body fluctuating in irritation for a moment. "But yes. Those...ooze monsters, as you call them, were testing the boundaries of my borders. I went to handle them personally, since they would have made short work of my Sleepwalkers, only to be ambushed by the Fright Knight."

"The Fright Knight?" Hanna and Dan chorused before turning to scowl at each other.

"Yes," Nocturne confirmed dryly. "He seems to have allied himself with those despicable beings, likely because they promised him power enough to keep him from being bound to yet another master during his long existence."

"Nocturne, do you know what those things are?" Hanna focused in on what Nocturne purposefully wasn't saying, a tendency of hers that always impressed and annoyed the ancient ghost in equal measures. The talent made her a promising successor to Clockwork, but it also tended to end in her gaining information that she wasn't ready for yet, which could get her into trouble. At least this time, loathsome as it was for Nocturne to consider it, she had someone to help keep her out of trouble, even if that someone was Dan Phantom. Eventually the sinister phantom would run out of uses for Clockwork's apprentice and the partnership would end in disaster, but for now Hanna Weiss was as safe as she could possibly be in this situation.

"I do," Nocturne admitted, knowing that he was likely placing Hanna in more danger by telling her this, but knowing the girl, she would probably go looking for answers elsewhere if he didn't tell her. "The very first ghosts were beings of pure energy who existed alongside humanity, unlike the ghosts today, who are remnants of humans themselves and lurk mostly in the Ghost Zone. These ghosts were more powerful than anything humanity had ever experience and, as is the tendency of humans, they began to fear what they did not understand. The humans searched for a way to destroy the ghosts. Those of us that were younger than these ancient beings began to fear that we would be erased completely and we urged our elders to take action." Nocturne's eyes became distant as he remembered those dark days where he, Clockwork, and others had frantically tried to come up with a plan to save themselves while their elders locked themselves away, busy with their own idea of protection.

"The elders shut themselves away in a pocket dimension, despite our pleas for them to do something," Nocturne recalled. "They never emerged from it. Instead, days later, the dimension imploded in on itself, creating the Ghost Zone. When we entered the portal together, searching for our missing comrades, we were unable to locate them. Instead we found creatures of beauty and incredible power. They were all that was left of our forebearers. They had used all of their considerable powers to create a home we could call our own and protectors to keep our home safe. We were blessed by their final gift, and for a time all was well, but like all good things, it could not last." Both Hanna and Dan were watching him intently now. Hanna's expression was serious, her brow furrowed, as if she could see where this story was going and knew that it wasn't going to end well. Dan looked intrigued, but also...hungry. Nocturne had no other words to describe the expression on Dan Phantom's face. It looked as if the other ghost was contemplating all the things that he could do with a power that could create something as vast and difficult to define as the Ghost Zone. The very thought of Dan having that kind of power made Nocturne uneasy, and he did his best to push it away.

"Our guardians grew curious about the world outside the Ghost Zone, so we allowed them to travel into the human realm, unsupervised. We only discovered too late that we had made a terrible mistake. Our guardians were not ghost, but all they had seen their entire lives were ghosts who fed off humans whenever they left the Ghost Zone, so they assumed they could do the same. They fed off the worst of humanity, and it changed them. Their golden glow turned dark and their intentions became sinister. They attempted to take over the Ghost Zone and feed off its power so that they could take control of the human world, but the ghosts were able to band together under the command of Pariah Dark. We managed to lock our one time protectors away in the center of the Ghost Zone," Nocturne finished.

"So all we have to do is lock the creatures away in the center of the Ghost Zone again and I can go back to working on my world domination plan," Dan drawled, not looking at all happy with the situation.

"Exactly," Hanna chirped with a falsely bright smile, making Dan turn to stare incredulously at her. "Minus the world domination plan, of course." Then she turned to Nocturne, expression serious again. "You said the middle of the Ghost Zone, right?"

* * *

This was not the greatest plan that Danny had ever had, and that was saying quite a bit, because Danny had come up with a lot of stupid plans since he'd become a halfa, and probably even more before that. Currently he, Dani, and Ember were huddled on a rock outcropping, hoping that none of the numerous black, oozing creatures noticed them. When they'd slipped through the door, Danny had expected to find some kind of deep tunnel full of the same sentient sludge that had kidnapped his parents. Instead, he and his companions had found themselves in a cave full of jagged rocks that were the same browns, reds, and golds as weathered desert stone. The cavern was lit from within by what looked like aloe vera plants that were a startling teal color and dripping luminescent violet liquid from their spiked leaves. There was a pool of disturbingly bright orange water at the very bottom of the cavern and completely dark tunnels branched off from the pool, the occasional ooze creature sliding into one of the openings.

"How are we going to find your parents down here?" Dani asked, careful to keep her voice low to avoid attracting the attention of the creatures below them. "There are probably hundreds of tunnels that branch off of those six openings and your parents could be down any one of them."

"She's right," Ember agreed, not sounding at all happy. "Unless you have a map of this place, we're out of luck."

"We can't just give up and leave my parents down here," Danny protested, even though the lead weight of hopelessness in his gut told him that his two companions were right.

"I'm not suggesting that, babypop," Ember replied sourly. "But _I_, at least, have enough common sense to know that barreling through the tunnels down here will only get us killed."

Danny wanted to argue, but he knew that he couldn't. Dani was right. There were probably hundreds of tunnels, if not thousands, in this particular realm and his parents could be locked away in any one of them. "Okay," he said, defeated. "We can't find them by randomly searching these tunnels, so we need to find someone that knows the exact layout. From there, we might be able to pick out the most likely spots for these things to keep prisoners at." He turned to Ember and asked, "Any ideas on who we could ask?"

"Pariah Dark would know," Ember said, lips curled into a slightly mocking smile. "But you don't want to open the sarcophagus and ask him."

"Anyone else?" Danny prompted, amused, and Dani lifted a hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles.

Ember frowned, expression as serious as Danny had ever seen it as she considered the possibilities. "Clockwork probably would have known, but he's not exactly available to interrogate," she said at last. "The Fright Knight's also a possibility, since he was working for Pariah, and Nocturne's old enough to be a possibility." She paused for a minute and then grinned wickedly at him. "If you really want to stretch the boundaries of who might know, you could try Skulker."

"No thank you," Danny replied immediately. "I really don't want to deal with being hunted today. The Fright Knight's out too, unless we absolutely have to talk to him, because that's not a fight I want to do again. Especially not in his domain. That leaves Nocturne, not that I really want to tangle with him either."

"Oh, _right_," Ember teased, a wide grin on her face. "We all heard how the Dream Master knocked you around again and again until you finally managed to send him back home."

"I'd liked to see you try to fight someone that might not, technically, even be there," Danny retorted, sulking a little and ignoring Dani when she nudged his arm. She was probably just going to try to make him feel better, and Danny really wasn't in the mood for comfort after what had happened today.

"_I_ don't try to pick battles that I shouldn't possibly be able to win," Ember told him in a superior tone and Danny scowled at her. "Besides, you're not the one who has to talk to Nocturne. Oracle's already taking care of it."

"Orac...Oh, _Hanna_," Danny said, comprehension washing over his features.

"Exactly," Ember said, looking incredibly smug as Dani nudged Danny in the arm again. "All we have to do is meet up with her and find out what she knows."

"Uh, guys?" Dani said, cutting them off. "I hate to interrupt your bonding time, but we're about to have company." Both Danny and Ember whirled around and followed Dani's gaze towards several ooze monsters that were making their way up the rocky walls towards them. They stared in silent shock for a moment, both wondering what they'd done to draw attention to themselves. Dani didn't take the time to entertain such thoughts. Instead she grabbed Danny and Ember's arms, tugging with all her might and snapping, "_Run!"_


	14. Chapter 14

Danny, Ember, and Dani exploded out of the door in the center of the Ghost Zone only to avoid a near collision with Hanna and Dan. Several startled squeaks spilled out of their mouths as Dani and Hanna barely managed to dodge each other. Ember and Dan collided nearly head on, Dan's bulk making him difficult to dodge, and Danny somehow managed to crash into both of them. The three of them pinwheeled though the Ghost Zone for a minute while Hanna stared at them, torn between amusement and horror. Horror won out when a ooze monster shoved itself out of the tunnel that seemed to be impossibly burrowed into the fabric of the Ghost Zone, barely visible behind the tangle of struggling beings. A hand appeared from the lava like trail of ooze, suddenly growing deadly looking claws as the creature forced itself through a gap that was too small for it. The creature was at least twice the size of the ones Hanna had seen before and had glowing pumpkin colored eyes, a feature that had been noticeably missing in the previous monsters.

Hanna opened her mouth to call out a warning, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a high pitched squeak. Dani was the one who screeched, _"Behind you!"_

Dan shoved his way free from Danny and Ember with a snarl, launching himself towards the creature. It batted him aside as if he weighed no more than a child's toy and pulled itself completely free, hissing like a teakettle as the ooze dispersed slightly until it looked like a rather large puddle. Dan whirled around with an even deeper growl and flew at the ooze monster again, this time moving so quickly that green light poured off him in streaks. He was inches from slamming full force into the creature when part of its body shifted back into the clawed hand and sliced along Dan's side. He toppled away with a howl, slamming into Hanna and sent of them both soaring backwards, crashing through a door and into a ghost's personal domain.

"Will you be my friend?" a curious voice inquired as the pair crashed into a powdery snowbank.

"Get off of me," Hanna hissed, shoving frantically at Dan's shoulder as she tried to see past his bulk.

"Will you be my friend?" the voice inquired again as Dan rolled away from Hanna with a groan, ectoplasm leaking from the wounds at his side.

"Not now, Klemper," Hanna told him, ice crystals clinging to her hair as she sat up and leaned towards the shattered remains of the pajama clad ghost's door. She could hear the sounds of fighting coming faintly from outside of Klemper's home, but she couldn't see any sign of the ooze monster following them and Dan was dripping acid green ectoplasm all over the snow.

Klemper let out a little whimpering noise but Hanna ignored him, scrambling on her hands and knees over to Dan's side. She pressed a trembling hand over one of the gashes in his side, stomach rolling as ectoplasm oozed between her fingers. "Please don't die, please don't die," she begged, trying to remember if Clockwork had ever taught her anything about how ghosts healed from wounds. Nothing was coming to mind, and Hanna realized abruptly that she didn't know the first thing about ghost physiology. Was it even possible for a ghost to die from loss of ectoplasm? Hanna assumed the answer was yes, but she didn't know for sure. A gravelly mumble caught her attention, drawing her gaze away from the gaping wounds and towards Dan's face. "What?" she asked tentatively, voice wobbling a little bit.

"I said I'm not dying," Dan grumbled, pushing himself upright and batting her hands away impatiently.

"Well, excuse me," Hanna snarled, scowling at him. "See if I care next time you get clawed by one of those..._things_." She fairly spat the last word, ignoring the relief settling in her chest at the sight of slashes fading under the glow of Dan's hands.

Klemper, apparently sensing a second chance at friendship, zipped over to them and asked brightly, "Will you be my friend?" His beaming smile lasted right up until the point that Dan lifted his free hand and sent a bolt of ectoplasm straight through the area where the pajama clad ghost's stomach would have been if he'd still be alive. Klemper let out a wail at that and snow began to fall fiercely, ice stinging Hanna's cheeks. She winced, already anticipating having to deal with an impending temper tantrum on top of the attacking creature outside the broken door. Fortunately for everyone, Dani came flying through the door, which had only just begun to repair itself, and slammed into Klemper with a startled yelp. The two of them tumbled into the snowbank next to Hanna and Dan, sending white powder everywhere. When they emerged, Klemper was whole and once more beaming as he asked, "Will you be my friend?"

"Uh, sure," Dani said, looking totally bemused, and Klemper let out a delighted squeal, snatching the girl up in a bear hug.

"Keep him distracted," Hanna hissed and Dani nodded, still looking a little lost.

"Hey, want to build a snowman?" the girl suggested, squirming free of Klemper's hug. Klemper nodded so rapidly that his head became a blur and dragged Dani deeper into his home, babbling something about finding better snowman snow.

"That was almost cruel," Dan drawled, floating up off the snow and smirking at her.

"Oh, shut up," Hanna snapped at him, grabbing his arm and yanking him towards the door after her. "We have work to do."

She was jerked to an abrupt stop when Dan refused to move. "Slow down there, princess," he told her. "Who said I was going to help you and the wanna be superhero out there?"

Hanna gave him her best scowl, but a sudden thought transformed the look into a rather nasty grin. "You're right, you never did say you were going to help us," she said sweetly and Dan's expression turned wary. "You could just let us be defeated and try to take over the world after the ooze monsters have destroyed it. I mean, they'll probably consume you when you try, which isn't the ending I would have thought you wanted, but I guess I don't really know you all that well." She gave him an innocent smile, dropping his arm and heading for the exit. She'd only made it a few feet when Dan growled and launched himself after her.

"Fine, I'll help," he hissed at her. "But only because I want those creatures out of _my_ domain, not because I'm some goody two-shoes hero."

"Of course," Hanna replied with no small amount of amusement, darting towards Klemper's partially reformed door so they could go help Danny and Ember before Dan changed his mind.

The two of them floated over the bottom half of Klemper's door, the only part that had completely reformed after being shattered twice, in time to see Danny get tossed aside like he was a rag doll. Ember, who was looking a little worse for ware, strummed a cord on her guitar, but the wave of energy that accompanied the music didn't even budge the creature. Instead it lunged at her and she dodged, letting out a cat like yowl when its claws scratched her tail. A frantic blast of ectoplasm from Danny kept the creature from following after Ember. It whipped around with a growl like a rumble of thunder and Hanna took advantage of its preoccupation with the other halfa to practically fling an unsuspecting Dan at the creature.

"What the-" he yelped only to cut himself off when the creature sliced at him with ectoplasm stained claws. He darted aside and detonated a powerful blast right in front of the creature's eyes to buy himself some time. "You're going to pay for this," he snarled but Hanna waved him off, mind racing as she tried to figure out how to defeat the ooze monster. She knew that they could be melted down by water, but they were in the Ghost Zone so there wasn't water readily available. The closest thing she had to water was all the snow behind Klemper's rapidly reforming door, but she didn't exactly have a way to melt it. She didn't, but she knew someone who could.

"Stop playing with the pile of ooze and get over here," she shouted at Dan, ignoring the way Danny winced in her peripheral vision.

"I wouldn't be dealing with it if you hadn't thrown me," he snarled back.

"Well I needed a distraction so I could come up with a plan, and you're pretty good at being distracting. Now stop screwing around and get over here."

Dan let out an aggrieved sounding snarl, rolling under another swipe of claws as Hanna waited for him to disengage from the battle. "You have a plan?" Ember's voice at her shoulder startled Hanna for a moment, and she glanced over at the blue haired rocker.

"Yes."

Ember studied her for a moment and then nodded, tucking blue hair that had come loose from her ponytail behind her ears. "Okay, what do you need us to do?" She gestured between herself and Danny, expression determined.

"I need you to keep that thing busy for a few minutes," Hanna told them and they both nodded.

Ember pulled out her guitar, hands poised over the strings, as Danny gathered a ball of ectoplasm in the palm of one hand. The two of them lunged towards the ooze monster just as Dan broke free and loomed over Hanna. "This had better be good."

"I have a way to get rid of our current ooze problem," Hanna told him, pulling her sweet smile back out of her arsenal. "I just need you to melt some of the snow behind Klemper's door."

"And you can't do this yourself because..." Dan drawled, eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Ectoplasm incinerates snow instead of melting it," Hanna replied primly, refusing to back down. "Besides, the fire on your head has to be good for something." Dan looked less than impressed by her second selling point as he brushed roughly by her, heading for Klemper's newly repaired door at high speed. Hanna rushed after him, not at all surprised when Dan broke through the door again instead of just taking the time to open it. When she darted through the doorway, Dan was already melting a massive pile of pillow looking snow, much to the dismay of a wailing Klemper. Dani, who was being hugged like some kind of stuffed animal, was staring at the proceedings with wide eyes.

"Sorry Klemper, but we're melting some of your snow to help save the day," Hanna babbled, already beckoning the growing puddle of water over with her fingers. It wobbled and fought her the entire way, twisting and thrashing as if she was trying to contain a miniature cyclone.

"Having trouble there, sweetheart?" Dan asked, giving her an almost feral smile.

"Not at all," Hanna replied through gritted teeth. If she had possessed sweat glands in this form she would have been soaked in sweat from the effort of holding the nebulous ball of water together and her outstretched hand was trembling slightly.

"Are you sure?" he inquired slyly, slowly begin to circle like a hungry predator. Hanna managed a strained smile in response, and when Dan moved out of her sight she pulled a tendril of water free from the tumultuous ball of water, sending it lashing around behind her body. She was rewarded with a startled yelp from Dan that turned her false smile into a full out grin as she turned towards Klemper's door, which was repairing itself much more sluggishly than it had the previous two times. Apparently destroying it completely multiple times was taking a toll on the energy level of Klemper's home.

Moving towards the exit of Klemper's home made her feel drained, as if her whole body was being weighted down by led, and the massive ball of water began shedding massive drops everywhere. At this rate, Hanna wasn't going to have any water left by the time she reached the ooze creature. A sudden wave of dizziness stopped her in her tracks, the ball of water shedding nearly half its mass in one go. Hanna stared at it in dismay, floating woozily just a few inches above the snow covered ground. "Pathetic," she heard Dan mutter, his voice sounding as if he was underwater. She wanted to turn and scowl at him but by the time her brain had transmitted the message to her body that it was supposed to move, he was already next to her.

Dan grabbed her by the back of her top, letting out what sounded like a long suffering sigh, and dragged her out of Klemper's home, muttering "Just keep that stupid water ball in one piece or we'll all end up dead."

For a moment Hanna considered scowling at him, but ultimately she decided that it wasn't worth the effort. Instead she focused all her attention on holding the ball of water together. Her vision was blurring from exhaustion so she could barely make out the shapes of Danny and Ember struggling to keep the ooze monster at bay. Her whole arm shook and she swore she could feel her muscles screaming in protest as she gestured towards the creature, sending the ball of water rolling awkwardly towards the fight. She stayed conscious just long enough to hear the creature shriek as the mass of water crashed over it. Then the darkness at the edge of her vision washed over her and she passed out.

* * *

Consciousness came back to Clockwork in slow increments. The first thing he became aware of was the steady drip, drip, drip of some kind of liquid spattering against the floor in front of him. When he was finally aware enough to force open his heavy eyelids, he saw jagged red rock and bars made out of what appeared to be some sort of tar that occasionally dripped and oozed towards the floor. The air was hot and heavy, seeming to weigh him down and making him feel as if he was made of lead. He groaned softly and struggled to push himself into a sitting position, trying to remember what had happened. His thoughts were halted in their tracks by the sight of Pariah Dark's coffin dangling from a chain attached to the out of sight ceiling across from his cage. The coffin should have been safely ensconced in a fortress where there was no chance of the tyrant ghost king escaping and causing chaos, not dangling in the middle of a cave.

Understandably concerned, Clockwork closed his eyes and tried to figure out how he'd ended up in in this cave. He remembered standing in front of one of his windows into the future, keeping an eye on what was in store for Amity Park. He always kept a close eye on the little town because the presence of Danny Phantom seemed make that part of the timeline fluctuate more frequently than it did anywhere else. He hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary in store for the town in the next thirty years, so he'd turned away, intending on checking on the state of Dan Phantom's thermos. That was when he'd been confronted with one of the creatures he'd thought had been locked away forever. After a brief struggle, Clockwork had been subdued. The last thing he remembered was having his vision obscured by the creature's body, so he could only presume that it had dragged him back to this place after the struggle.

Hanna had been planning on stopping by for a lesson, so undoubtedly his absence had already been noticed by at least her, but Clockwork wasn't certain that was a good thing. His student was not at all prepared to face the ancient creatures that had once protected the Ghost Zone, and that wasn't the only problem she might have encountered in his domain. Without his presence there to continually repair the thermos, Dan would eventually manage to escape. Once he broke free, Dan would be fully focused on taking over the world and destroying anyone who stood in his path. Knowing Hanna's temperament as well as he did, Clockwork could be entirely certain that she would be one of the first in line to try and stop the homicidal ghost. He could only hope that she was lucky enough to avoid the impending explosion that would be Dan Phantom's escape, because he was in no position right now to help her. In his current condition, he couldn't even rescue himself.


End file.
